 Like many people newly arrived among nobility, he was eager to provide an honourable origin for his family, but the only distinguished descent that can be confirmed by critical scholars is the fact that his wife was the niece of a bishop with close personal ties to the royal family.Calling himself "Hadorph" or "Hadorphius", after the farm on which he grew up, he began to study at Uppsala University, where he was appointed secretary of the academy in 1660.He was then noticed for his strong interest in national antiquities by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie and Count Erik Lindschöld (1634-1690).