Rockers were gentlewomen employed at royal courts and aristocratic households as attendants to infants, whose duties included rocking the cradle.Joan Glasheen, The Secret People of the Palaces: The Royal Household from the Plantagenets to Queen Victoria (Batsford, 1998), p. 13: Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth (London: Pickering, 1830), p. 219. In medieval England, a French term "berceresse" or "bercere" was used for this role,Penelope Eames, Furniture in England, France and the Netherlands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century (Furniture History Society, 1977), p. 94. or the English words "bersatrix" or "rockster".Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (Yale, 2016), p. 80 fn. 19: Mathilda de Plympton was the bersatrix of Edward the Black Prince. The employment of rockers was noted by an English author Walter of Bibbesworth in his Treatise.Nicholas Orme, From Childhood to Chivalry: The Education of the English Kings and Aristocracy (Methuen, 1984), p. 12: Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children (Yale, 2001), p. 60.William Rothwell, William of Bibbesworth: Le Tretiz (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1990), p. 3. An ordinance for the household of Henry VII of England includes "four chamberers, called rockers". The rockers gave oaths of loyalty and service to the Lord Chamberlain as members of the royal household.A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal Household (London: Society of Antiquaries, 1790), p. 127.
Tudor and Stuart courts Henry VII employed Agnes Butler and Emily or Evelyn Hobbes as rockers for Arthur, Prince of Wales at Farnham Castle.Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death & Commemoration (Boydell, 2009), p. 11: William Campbell, Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 (London, 1877), p. 459 "Euilyn": Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth (London: Pickering, 1830), p. 219. His nurse was Katharine Gibbs.William Campbell, Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 (London, 1877), pp. 553, 556. The rockers appointed for the cradle of Margaret Tudor at Richmond Palace were Anne Mayland and Margaret Troughton, assisted by Alice Bywymble.Julia A. Hickey, Preparing Tudor Kings and Princes to Rule (Pen & Sword, 2025), pp. 36–37: Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland and English Princesses: Margaret Tudor, p. 5.Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series vol. 1 (London, 1827), pp. 170–171.Arlene Naylor Okerlund, Elizabeth of York (Springer, 2009), pp. 106, 113–114. In March 1503, Elizabeth of York paid allowances to three rockers Beatrix Bradowe, Emme Bragges, and Alice Williams, who served the three children of Catherine of York, Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (London, 1830), pp. 100, 103.
The illegitimate children of James IV of Scotland were nursed at Stirling Castle in 1502, and Andrew Aytoun paid £3 Scots to three rockers who "kepit the barnes" for their Whitsunday fees.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 1500-1504, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 297. Margaret Tudor married James IV in 1503, and the four rockers of her children were paid 54 shillings yearly, were given gowns of French tawny fabric, and had New Year's Day gifts of money.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), pp. 33, 70, 93, 428. The six "rokkaris" and nurses of James V (and his late brother the Duke of Ross), including Cristeane Cokburn, were given lengths of Rouen russet fabric for their gowns in March 1516, and velvet to border the gowns. Their annual wage or fee was £4 Scots.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 5 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. xx, 74–75.Mairi Cowan & Laura Walkling, "Growing up with the court of James IV", Janay Nugent & Elizabeth Ewan, Children and Youth in Premodern Scotland (Boydell, 2015), p. 22.<ref>Janet Hadley Williams, "David Lyndsay and the Making of King James V", in, Stewart Style, 1513-1542 (Tuckwell, 1996), p. 201: Aeneas Mackay, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 14 (Edinburgh, 1893), pp. liv, 120.
The rockers for Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon in 1516 were Margery Parker, Anne Bright, Ellen Hutton, and Margaret Cousine.David Loades, Mary Tudor (Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 344. Their quarterly wage was 20 shillings.Melita Thomas, The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and his daughter Mary (Amberley, 2017), p. 30: J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 2:2 (London: Longman, 1864), p. 1473. Margery Parker may perhaps have been the daughter of Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley who later married John Shelton.Marie Axton & James P. Carley, Triumphs of English: Henry Parker, Lord Morley, Translator to the Tudor Court: New Essays in Interpretation (British Library, 2000), pp. 15, 44. A "Mrs Parker" in Mary's household in 1525, and listed as a chamberer in 1533, may have been the former rocker, or another daughter of Lord Morley.Melita Thomas, The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and his daughter Mary (Amberley, 2017), p. 78: James Gairdner, Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 6 (London: Longman, 1882), p. 498 no. 1199. Alice Parker was one of Mary's chamberers in 1525.David Loades, Mary Tudor (Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 348.
In 1519, Cardinal Wolsey sent a gift of £100 to the ambassador in France, Thomas Boleyn, for the nurse and the four rockers of Henry the son of Francis I of France in June 1519.Glenn Richardson, "Personal gift-giving at the Field of the Cloth of Gold", Thomas Betteridge & Suzannah Lipscomb, Henry VIII and the Court: Art, Politics and Performance (Ashgate, 2013), p. 51.Letters and Papers Henry VIII, 3:1 (London, 1867), p. 99 no. 289. Princess Mary gave gilt spoons as New Year's Day gifts to the four rockers of Prince Edward,Maria Hayward, Dress at the Court of King Henry VIII (Maney, 2007), p. 199. these included Jane Russell and Bridget Forster. This Jane Russell may have been the chamberer and gentlewoman of the privy chamber of Mary and Elizabeth who died in 1558.John Gough Nichols, Literary Remains of King Edward the Sixth, 1 (London, 1857), p. xxxv: Walter G. Richardson, The Report of the Royal Commission of 1552 (West Virginia University Library, 1974), pp. 83–84.
Hans Holbein and Cornelis Hayes were commissioned to make a jewelled silver cradle for Anne Boleyn's child.Nicola Tallis, All The Queen's Jewels, 1445–1548: Power, Majesty and Display (Routledge, 2023), p. 173. The epitaph carved on Blanche Parry's monument at St Faith's Bacton, Herefordshire, seems to alludes to her role as a rocker for Elizabeth I, or presence in her nursery, "Whyllste that my Mystres lyvde in womans state: Whose cradell sawe I rockte".Ruth E. Richardson, "Elizabeth I's Earliest Influences: New Discoveries Concerning Blanche Parry", The Court Historian, 25:1 (April 2020), pp. 32–33, 39 fn. 40. Later, in August 1582, Blanche Parry petitioned on behalf of Miles Pendred of Northbourne, whose wife Anne (or Elizabeth) Lewin had been one of the queen's nurses.Ruth E. Richardson, "Elizabeth I's Earliest Influences: New Discoveries Concerning Blanche Parry", The Court Historian, 25:1 (April 2020), p. 39. Parry may have gained employment at court by the influence of her aunt Blanche Milborne. The careers and social status of other 16th-century rockers and nursery workers may be more difficult to trace.Ruth Elizabeth Richardson, Mistress Blanche: Queen Elizabeth I's Confidante (Logaston Press, 2018), pp. 37, 46, 76: Joan Glasheen, The Secret People of the Palaces: The Royal Household from the Plantagenets to Queen Victoria (Batsford, 1998), p. 18: HMC Calendar Salisbury Hatfield, 2 (London, 1888), p. 517 no. 1198: Richard Hovenden, Visitation of Kent, 1619 (London, 1898), pp. 77, 103–4, as Elizabeth Lewin Pendred: Calendar of Patent Rolls, Elizabeth, 8 (London: HMSO, 1982), nos. 829, 1343, as Anne Pendred.Nicola Tallis, Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen (Michael O'Mara, 2024), p. 60: Susan Doran, Elizabeth I and Her Circle (Oxford, 2015), p. 196.
James V and Mary of Guise had a son James, Duke of Rothesay whose nursery was in St Andrews. The "Lady Mistress" was in charge and the treasurer's accounts include purchases of textiles for her. In July 1540, she bought sheets and blankets for two beds for the "ladyis that kepis and rokis my lord Prince". The Lady Mistress also made shirts for King James, as did another courtier Katherine Bellenden. The four rockers had the same wage or fee as the laundrywoman. A new cradle was made by Andrew Mansioun, an earlier royal cradle had been constructed in 1512 for use at Linlithgow Palace.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (Collins, 1977), p. 81: Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 307, 319–320, 477.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie: The Court of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2005), pp. 78 fn. 97, 199. An inventory made in 1543 includes the late Prince's cradle blankets of new fustian, plaid, and thick white, with a cradle covering embroidered with silk and gold with silk finges, and pieces of red velvet used to dress the cradle.John G. Harrison, Wardrobe Inventories of James V (Kirkdale Archaeology / Historic Scotland 2008), citing British Library MS Royal 18 C.
Mary, Queen of Scots and James VI at Stirling
Details of the nursery of Mary, Queen of Scots do not appear in the treasurer's accounts, her nurse was Jean Sinclair and her laundry woman Margaret Balcolmy. According to a household roll of Mary of Guise, there were two older or senior rockers and three younger rockers.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 307, 319–320, 477.Andrea Thomas, Princelie Majestie (Edinburgh, John Donald, 2005), p. 78: Some nursery staff are indicated in a household roll NRS E34/23 (1), John G. Harrison, Ladies and Waiting: Marie de Guise at Stirling Castle (Historic Scotland, 2008), p. 55. A man was paid two shillings to transport the cradle from Linlithgow to Stirling in July 1543.Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (Collins, 1977), p. 130.