Burchard Kranich

Burchard Kranich (c. 1515–1578) (also known as Doctor Burcot) was a mining engineer and physician who came to England from Germany. 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 later practised as a physician in London, where he enjoyed a mixed reputation, and is said to have attended Elizabeth I when she contracted smallpox. He is alluded to in several literary works published during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

Kranich's surname is spelled variously in extant documents; contemporary spellings include Cranye, Cranach, Cranicke, Cranegh, Craneigh, Craneighe, Craunighe and Kranyke. He is also referred to in some documents as 'Burchard', as though it were his surname, and later as 'Doctor Burcot'. 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 Erzgebirge, a mining area.

He came to England during the reign of Mary I, and is first heard of in the State Papers on 3 June 1553 ('The suit of Burghard touching the mines'). According to Wallis he was perhaps a Catholic attempting to avoid the vicissitudes of the Protestant Reformation on the continent. On 29 May 1554 he was given licence for twenty years to 'mine, break open ground, melt, divide (i.e. separate metals) and search for all manner of metals' in accordance with an indenture which he had entered into on 18 May of that year. The grant included a prohibition preventing others from making use of his methods for a six-year period.

He initially mined at Makeney in Derbyshire, where he erected a watermill near Duffield, and built a smeltmill, the first of its kind, to extract lead from ore obtained at Burrel Edge. Depositions taken in 1582 state that he left Derbyshire in 1554, having heard of better mining opportunities in Cornwall and Devon.

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