FURNEAUX

Within less than forty years after the conflict at Hastings, Henry I. granted the Manor of Fen Ottery, in Devon, to Allan de Furneaux, whose son Galfrid de Furneaux of that place served as Sheriff of Devon, in 1154, as did his son Sir Alan de Furneaux in 1199. From the Testa de Neville and other sources, the Manor of Fen Ottery can be traced in the possession of the same family down to John de Furneaux, temp. Henry V. A branch of this parent stem was established in Somersetshire, by Henry, brother of Sir Alan Furneaux, the Sheriff in 1199, and held the manors of Ashington, Kilve, &c. Three of its descendants, all bearing the Christian name of Matthew, occur on the list of Sheriffs of Devon: the last Sir Matthew dying in 1315, the year of his Shrievalty. Another offshoot fixed itself in Derbyshire, where Sir Robert de Furneaux, stated by Dugdale "to be a younger brother of the ancient family of Furneaux," was Lord of the Manor of Beighton, A.D. 1236. One line of this ancient house still exists, derived from Henry Furneaux of Paignton in Devon, whose eldest son, Matthew, was baptized in the church there in 1560. A scion of this branch settled at Buckfastleigh, and marrying in 1652 an heiress of the name of Kempe, became possessed of a freehold estate called Swilly, in the pariah of Stoke Damerel, which has regularly descended to the present time, being now the property of James Furneaux, Esq., nephew of the Rev. Tobias Furneaux, of St. German's Parsonage, Devonport.

--(This name appears on the Battle Abbey Roll).