(Anglo-French-Latin) belonging to Fourneaux (Normandy) = the Furnaces [French fourneau, Old French fournel, a furnace; from Lat, forn-us, an oven] There is a Fourneaux in Dept. Calvados and another in Dept. Manche (while Les Fourneaux is in Dept. Yonne).

This surname was Latinized de Furnellis.

Leland couples this and the succeeding name together, as “Forneus and Fournevous.” This family came from Fourneaux, near Coutances, and settled in several different counties. Odo de Furnell held in capite in Somerset, 1086 (Exon. Domesday), and Galfrid de Furnell was Sheriff of Devon 1 Hen. II. His son Henry followed him in the office 25 Hen. II. and 7 Richard I. Alan Furneaux, in 1165, was one of the Justiciaries. (Mon. i. 999.) One of their seats was at Kentisbere. Another, Fenn Ottery, “was for many descents held by the Furneaux by sergeantry, and so continued unto the latter end of King Edward II.’s days.” They had received it from Henry I. The last heir, Sir Matthew, died in 1315, the year of his shrievalty. The name is found in Northumberland, when Robert Fitz Roger and Ralph de Furnell were joint Sheriffs in 1200, 1201, and 1202: and is still borne by Pury or Perry Furneaux, in Somersetshire. In Norfolk and Cambridgeshire “the Furneaux held of the Earl of Richmond. Sir Jeffrey de Furneaux was Lord about 1180, and had his chief seat at Bergham in Cambridgeshire. Sir Simon de Furneaux, Lord of Pelham-Furneaux, in 1281, had a market and fair granted to him at Bergham:” and left an only daughter, with whom the elder line ended. A junior branch, seated at Herling in Norfolk continued till the middle of the fourteenth century. The last named, John, and his sister and heir Elizabeth, were both wards of John Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. John died a minor in 1361. The Furneaux bore Sadie, a Pale Lozengee Argent. - Blomfield's Norfolk. John de Furneaux or Furness held Aynderby-Fourneaux (now Ainderby-Steeple) in Yorkshire in 1316, and in 1322 “was one of the Manucaptors for the good behaviour of John de Swynnerton, on his discharge from imprisonment as an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster.” Richard de Furneaux received a pardon, for having joined the same cause, in 1318 at York. - Palgrave's Parl. Writs. He descended from Anchitel or Asquitell de Furnell, an under-tenant of the Earl of Richmond’s in 1086, who held Ainderby and some other lands, and witnesses his suzerain's grant to the monk Yvo of Swavesey Priory.—A. S. Ellis. This Anchetil gave some of his land at Aynderby, Morton, and Thyrntoft to St. Martin’s, Richmond (Mon. Angl.) His name is there written Forneys; and in the Rotuli Hundredorum of 1272 we again find a De Fomays in Yorkshire. Robert, son of Richard de Furneys, occurs in the Testa de Nevill; he was of Wellinghore in Lincolnshire, and at that time in the King’s custody. During the reign of Edward III., Henry, eldest son of the first Lord Fitz Hugh, married Joan, daughter of Sir Richard Fourneys (obviously the same Richard who had been in arms for the Earl of Lancaster), and sister and heir of William Fourneys, with whom he had the Lordships of Carleton, Kingstone, Beghton, and Bothomsall.—Dugdale.

A Norman family who came either from Fourneau-sur-Baise, near Falaise, or from Fourneaux-sur-Vire, near St. Lo. They gave the suffix to Pelham-Fumeux, co. Herts.

Furneaux: from a place of the name near Coûtance. Odo de Furnell held lands in Somerset (Domesday).

Furneaux was originally a Somersetshire name. The knightly family of De Furneaux, of Norman extraction, were lords of Ashington, Somerset, in the 13th and 14th centuries, and served as sheriffs of that county (Collinson's "Somerset"). Thomas Furneaux was vicar of Ashburton in 1501 (W. A.), and Thomas Farneaux was an Ashburton churchwarden 1532 (A.).