A Cocker’s Reckoning

Cockers very early in the history of the sport began to keep records, albeit initially for the purposes of accounting for household expenditure rather than documenting the outcome of matches or in seeking to improve the quality of their cocks. The accounts book of George Manners, 7th Earl of Rutland (1580–1641), landowner and politician, contains a brief entry for 15 March 1605: ‘Paid the Sir George Villers his man in rewarde for bringinge a fyghtinge cocke to his Lordship, ijs’. The Manners family were obviously keen cockers; among his successors, the 9th Earl and first Duke of Rutland, John Manners (1638–1711) spent a great deal of money on cocking. His accounts books show that on 16 June 1694 he paid 16s. for four days charges at the cocking at Leicester; on 29 June 1695 he paid 7s.6d. to the cock feeder at Leicester for feeding 3 cocks; on 28 June 1696 he paid George Harris 3s.6d. for a cock walk and 5s. for five more cock walks. This was, or certainly became, a common practice. Many owners sent their fighting cocks away to be ‘walked’, often spreading them around several breeders who were paid to raise them. This prevented whole flocks being wiped out by epidemic diseases. On 25 February1698 Manners was charged 10s for transporting a cock from Haddon to Belvoir; on 5 March he paid for twenty-eight days gathering up cocks for the Newmarket meeting—paying £11.4s. for a man, a boy and two horses, at 8s per day. Newmarket was an important event on the cockfighting calendar and a favourite venue of his Lordship and his circle. While there, he paid a Mr Sherbourne £3 for six pairs of cock spurs.