The rather grisly lyrics of the rhyme are supposed to have been written by a young pilgrim who sailed to America on the Mayflower. He saw the way.

native-American mothers rocked their babies in cradles of birch-bark, hung from the branches of trees. The wind would then rock the baby to sleep, but sadly, if the branches holding the cradle fell, the baby would be injured. 

Another possible history about this rhyme from England says that in the olden days a careful but hardworking mother short of time, would tie her infant’s cradle to a bough of a tree and let the wind do the rocking for her!
A different theory about the rhyme’s origins points to a terrible accident where the Earl of Sandwich’s son was tossed without warning from his cradle due to a mishap. But alas! The cradle was later found empty, floating on the river Thames. Another source reports that Elfie Crockett, a relative of Davy Crockett, a famous American pioneer, wrote the lyrics in 1872 while babysitting a restless child!

In Derbyshire, England, local legend says that the song relates to a famous local character in the late 1700’s – Betty Kenny, who lived with her husband and their eight children in a huge yew tree, where a hollowed-out bough served as a cradle.

Yet another theory has it that the song actually refers to events preceding the revolution in England. The baby is supposed to be the son of King James II of England, who was believed to be someone else’s child, smuggled into the royal premises to provide an heir for King James. The ‘wind’ may be the ‘political wind’ or force coming in the form of King James’ nephew and son-in-law to depose the King in the revolution. The ‘cradle’ is the royal monarchy.

The anonymous author of this nursery rhyme may have written this rhyme as a warning to those wo strive to climb so high they eventually fall.

This little rhyme, taught to almost every  child at infancy, has so much history behind it! From Native-American tradition to the royal houses of England, this song has surely traveled a long way across the globe. Even though sung as a lullaby to little kids, the ghastly lyrics are usually ignored.

Rock a bye baby/On the tree top When the wind blows/The cradle will rock When the bough breaks/ the cradle will fall Down will go baby/Cradle and all My heart really goes out to the poor baby, a victim of the blowing wind. Don’t you wish the poem had a happy ending? If I had my way, I would have given the Indian ‘kahani me twist’ to the story! Down goes the baby, but falls on a beautiful bed of flowers, and lives happily ever after!