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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

knock in the cradle n.

a fool.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Knock in the Cradle, a Fool.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].

In phrases

have a knock in the cradle (v.)

to be stupid, mentally unstable.

1660		Wandring Whore I 12: My Maiden-head? He that think’s I had my Maiden head after thirteen, has had a knock in the Cradle, and merits cutting of the Simples.
a.1661		‘Knave out of Doors’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) ii 27: She and her Maid gave him the Whip; / And beat his head so addle; / You’d think he had a knock in the Cradle.
1667		Dryden Sir Martin Mar-all IV i: You are one that had a Knock in your Cradle, a conceited Lack-wit.
1780		Thrale Thraliana i Feb. 426: Pope’s anecdote of Swift corroborates all M^rs Pilkington’s Accts of his Oddity—forcing His friends to take his Money so madly—&c. surely that Man must have had a Rock too much in his Cradle as we say, for there was neither Wit Sense nor Affectation in such queer Tricks as these.