Cradles, like beds, were symbolic of familial legacy and inheritance as they hosted subsequent generations when they were most vulnerable. The cradle in the Birthroom dates to the 1600s and Shakespeare, and his children, would have slept in this type of cradle as infants.

William would have been first in a cradle. New babies were wrapped in linen bands for the first few months. This was so they grew up with straight arms and legs.

William would have slept in a wooden cradle when he was a new baby. He was lucky to survive because there was a bad plague in Stratford during the summer after he was born.