The Glympton Park Cup : A Britannia standard silver cup and cover, engraved with a contemporary coat of arms, two capped scroll handles on a cast foot, the cover with finial, also engraved with a crest. Height : 25cm Weight : 42oz. Re the arms and crest on cup and cover: these are the quartered arms of Wheate, with an inescutcheon of pretense in the centre for Sawbridge. These are therefore the arms of Sir Thomas Wheate, 1st Baronet, of Glympton Park, Oxfordshire.

Born 1667, married Anne Sawbridge, daughter of George Sawbridge, a London bookseller, in 1687. Wheate was elected MP for Woodstock 1690-1695. He then did not seek immediate re-election. He was created a Baronet 1696 and was High Sherrif for Oxfordshire 1696-7. He subsequently stood for re-election as an MP , but failed.

In 1705, he had an amazing stroke of luck when Queen Anne granted the manor of Woodstock to the Duke of Marlborough. He and Wheate were both Whigs. Wheate’s Glympton quarries supplied the Duke with huge quantities of stone for the building of Blenheim Palace. He became a close political associate of the Duke and this ensures his return as MP for Woodstock in 1708 and again in 1714. He received the appointment of Storekeeper of the Ordinance 1717 and became a magistrate for Banbury 1718.

He died at Glympton in 1721 and he and his wife (who died 1719) are buried in Glympton Parish Church. He was succeeded to the title and estates by his eldest son.

Glympton Park Estates was sold by Prince Bandar bin Sultan a Senior Saudi Royal to the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his son Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa In February 2021.