Burchard Kranich
He was involved in mining ventures in Derbyshire and Cornwall, and in assaying the black ore, thought to be gold-bearing, brought back to England from Baffin Island by Martin Frobisher.
He is said to have been born in southern Germany, and according to Bennell his surname suggests that he came from Kronach in upper Franconia near the Ore Mountains, a mining area.
The lead was sent to Treffry, who died in 1563, at which time it passed into the hands of his son, John, who refused to deliver it to Carnsew and Tredeneck, who had taken over the mines and were responsible for repayment of the loan.
[11] During his years in Cornwall, Lewis credits Kranich with introducing useful innovations at Sir Francis Godolphin's tin works, among them the hydraulic stamp mill and improved methods of dressing ore, as well as the use of charcoal as fuel for smelting instead of the traditional peat.
[13] Richard Carew, on the other hand, mentions the 'rubble of certain mines and remains of a fining house' which demonstrate Kranich's 'vain endeavour in seeking of silver ore' in Cornwall.
[20] According to Foot, she rewarded Kranich with a grant which was stopped by Sir William Cecil;[11] however other sources note that in 1562 he was given 100 marks.
His licence was similar to an earlier grant to John Medley, but Kranich was given additional powers involving drainage in old and abandoned mines.
[3][26] In 1573 Richard Eden, in the course of requesting licence from the Queen to 'compound the admirable medicaments of Paracelsus from metals and minerals', cited a certain 'Brocardus' as one of a number of foreigners permitted to do so.
According to Campbell, 'Brocardus' is a Latinized form of the name 'Burchard', and Eden's petition is therefore evidence that Kranich was engaged in alchemy in England at the time.
[27][28] In 1577 Kranich was involved in assaying the tons of black ore brought from Baffin Island during Sir Martin Frobisher's voyages to the Canadian Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage.
[36][37] Amid growing doubts about the value of the ore, Kranich insisted that it contained a significant amount of gold, and asked for £200 and a daily wage of £1 to refine it.
By a codicil dated 19 October he bequeathed to one of his servants, William Deane, any proceeds in excess of £700 received from the sale of his lands in Holborn as well as his medical books and instruments.
[1][49][2][47] In The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), Reginald Scot disparagingly described Kranich's purchase, for monetary gain, of a familiar spirit from a juggler and conjurer called Feats:[50][51][52] And though Saul were bewitched and blinded in the matter, yet doubtless a wise man would have perchance espied her knavery.
[54][55] Thomas Nashe also alluded to Kranich in the dedicatory epistle of Have With You To Saffron Walden (1596):[55][2] Memorandum, I frame my whole book in the nature of a dialogue, much like Bullen and his Doctor Tocrub.Thomas Deloney referred to him in his epistle to the readers in the second part of The Gentle Craft:[56] Notwithstanding, if you find yourself overcharged with melancholy, you may perhaps have here a fit medicine to purge that humour by conferring in this place with Doctor Burket.Gervase Markham considered Kranich an excellent physician,[57] and in the 1631 edition of The English Housewife specifically mentioned 'Dr Burket and Dr Bomelius' as a source for the prescriptions in his first chapter, stating that they had given a manuscript containing the remedies to 'a great worthy Countess of this land'.
