On September 18th 2003, a group of about 30 people gathered at the ruins of Kilve Chantry to plant a tree. They were all members of the Furneaux family and had come to commemorate their ancestor Sir Symon de Furneaux , the founder of the Chantry in 1329. The Fumeauxs arrived in the West Country in 1066 with William the Conquerer, and gained lands in South Devon almost immediately. The family grew and spread out across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset plus many other counties and countries. Many of them still live in these 3 counties, and they were joined by others from much further afield. The gathering was the idea of Micheal Furneaux from South Devon, who is described by Drusilla Furneaux as the lynchpin of the family. Drusilla Furneaux, known as "Dru", put the first shovel of earth around the tree, after making a short speech. The family then had lunch together at the tearooms located next the ruins.

Michael Furneaux

Firstly I'd like to welcome you all here today for this very special occasion. I am Drusilla Furneaux, directly descended from Tobias' elder brother James, and the last of my line.
In case anyone is in any doubt as to how we got here I will give you a brief summary. Two men, Eude and Anquitel de Furneaux came with William in 1066. In the light of that victory, Anquitel went north to live, and Eude settled in the West Country. Land was given to them by a grateful king. From these two men it is probable that all the Furneauxs in Britain, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have sprung. There are likely to be more, in other parts of the world that I don't know about.
This century, in 63 years time, we will have been here a thousand years. We came here to kilve in 1180. Sir Symon de Furneaux built this chancery at Kilve in 1329, 674 years ago and 20 generations past. That is something to conjure with, to feel a sense of time, of place; our roots.
Today we are going to plant this young Red Oak and in the fullness of time a plaque will be installed to commemorate Simon de Furneaux, and our place in this beautiful county.
Over the years our fortunes have risen and fallen many times, many lines, from Judges and Sheriffs, to artisans and farmers. from ship builders to sailors. We must be doing something right, as there's a lot of us out there.
Lastly just before we plant this tree, on behalf of all of us, my thanks goes to my dear Michael. This man has done the most amazing amount of very valuable research into this family, spending huge amounts of time and money over the years. He has become the lynch pin of this family and has earned the love and respect of all of us. Without him we would not be standing here today. And now I would like to ask you all to place some earth around the roots of this tree.

Drusilla Furneaux.

Wasn't it a splendid occasion?! I know I can speak for everyone in expressing our gratitude to Michael for his inspiration and organisation, to Dru for her fine speech (not too long!!) and to Peter for arranging the floral presentations.
Although the weather was not as sunny as the previous days it mercifully held off raining and apart from one very glamorous lady who may have regretted her decision to sacrifice warmth for fashion I think we were very comfortable outside.
Kilve was a good choice for the gathering and although ancient by any standards you may be interested to know that there are at least two other surviving West Country buildings which can claim a much longer Furneaux association.
The first is the little church at Cudworth in West Somerset (near Cricket St. Thomas). Cudworth is the earliest place with connections to our family and is mentioned in the Somerset Domesday "Odo holds Cudworth from Roger". We know that this Odo was one of ours as the Exon Domesday helpfully records him as "Odo defomelt".
Much of the church is as it would have been then, especially the fine Romanesque arch which constitutes the main entrance. The church was certainly still in the family a hundred years later as it is recorded as being given to the diocese of Bath & Wells by one Alan de Furneaux, probably the illustrious royal judge of Henry II.
The second is the charming church of St. Gregory at Venn Ottery in East Devon. This was the ancient manor of "Fenotri" which was granted to the family sometime during the reign of Henry 1, ( 1100 ? 113 5). The church was built of good red Devon sandstone and it's AngloNorman design suggests a date around 1098. Although partly destroyed by the inevitable fire in the 18th C, the tower survived intact. I don't know about you but 1 find it eerily satisfying to touch these ancient walls which would have been brushed against by our famous ancestors nearly a thousand years ago! To be able to set our historic forebears against these solid and visible settings is something that very few families can do.
Thanks to the herculean efforts of Michael over the years we have now amassed what must be the largest collection of Furneaux documents and references in the world. This collection is still growing. Perhaps one day we may be able to put the whole jigsaw puzzle together!
Many of you will have copies of the fine research performed by the Rev. Henry Furneaux towards the end of the 19 C, but Michael's dogged efforts have turned up references and documents which even "Beloved Henry" was unaware of Many of these refer to the lean years between the mid 10th C. and the latter 16th C. We still live in hope of making an unbroken lineage yet!
Finally, let me conclude by saying how wonderful it was to meet you all, sadly time prevented me from 'getting around' everyone but there's always another time!
With best wishes to you all,

Jeremy Furneaux