Furneaux have held a variety of posts in service to the crown of England over many years. In my mind this reinforces the view of them as loyal subjects, and in return they were often entrusted with key roles and responsibilities.

“The High Sheriffs were appointed by the king and were the king’s representative in their county [shire] of jurisdiction … Their primary functions were those of chief law enforcement officer and tax collector … the security of the itinerant justices and raising armed forces for the King. As tax collector, each Easter and Michaelmas (21 March, 29 September) the Sheriffs were required to appear before the officers of the Exchequer and render their accounts for the previous period” ¹

Origin of the word ‘sheriff’

Sheriff comes from the words ‘shire-reeve’

shire (n.) [Middle English], from Old English scir, scyr “administrative office, jurisdiction, stewardship, authority,” from West Germanic *skiru-, from Proto-Germanic *skizo (source also of Old High German scira “care, official charge”). Shire has given way to the word county in common terms, although some counties retain the word ‘shire’ in them.

reeve (n.) [Middle English] “steward,” Middle English reve, refe, reive, rive, from Old English gerefa “king’s officer,” … A word of unknown origin ²

List of Furneaux, by king and shire (county)

Fortunately there are a number of lists of sheriffs and the following is a compilation from a number of sources ³

King	Furneaux [other names listed are known Furneaux variants]	Shire
Henry I	Geoffrey de Furnellis	Cornwall & Devon
Stephen *
Henry II	Galfride de Furnell, or Furneaux	Devon
	Alan de Furnellis	Oxford (1185)
	Alan de Furneaux	Cornwall (1178)
Richard I * (Lionheart)	Henry Furnell, or Furneaux	Devon
	Alan de Furnell, or Furneaux	Cornwall (1181)
	Ralph de Furnellis	Northumberland
	Henry de Furnellis	Shropshire
John *
Henry III *
Edward I	Matthew de Furneaux	Devon
Edward II	Matthew Furneaux	Devon
	Matthew de Furneaux	Somerset and Dorset[i]

Folklore and History

The role of a sheriff in the time of the Norman and Plantagenet Kings is of course immortalised in the tales of Robin Hood. In those tales the Sheriff is the protagonist, who exploits the poor. Importantly this often occurred during the absence of the King while overseas on crusade. Like the infamous Sheriff of Nottingham, multiple Furneaux where sheriffs under Richard the Lionheart.

The actual history is a little more complex. Initially some Sheriffs, like Baldwin in Devon⁴, where appointed hereditary Sheriffs. This seems to have shifted into more fixed term appointments. Furneaux where appointed as Sheriffs in multiple counties In some reigns Furneaux were appointed across multiple shires. Under other Kings, they were not appointed at all, so they seem to drop in and out of favour.

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1. https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~bathonia/genealogy/SheriffsDevon.htm ↩︎
2. https://www.etymonline.com/word/sheriff ↩︎
3. Compiled from a number of sources. Chiefly The Note-Book of Tristram Risdon which compiled the list of Sheriffs and Lords from various sources, as well as other contemporary compilations. https://archive.org/details/notebookoftristr00risdrich/page/250/mode/2up?q=furneaux https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~bathonia/genealogy/SheriffsDevon.htm
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:High_Sheriffs_of_Cornwall
   https://archive.org/details/listofsheriffsfo00newy/page/122/mode/2up?q=furneaux ↩︎
4. https://archive.org/details/notebookoftristr00risdrich/page/84/mode/2up?q=furneaux ↩︎