Maybe this is connected to endogamy ...Thomas Patch was an 18th c. English painter based in Florence who specialised in views of the Arno and caricatures of English aristos passing through Florence on the Grand Tour. This painting from about 1760 is "The Duke of Roxburgh and Miss Tabitha Mendez"John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburgh is seen steeling himself to propose to the rich but unlovely dwarf Tabitha Mendez. Tabitha was the daughter of James Mendez (who married his cousin Anna - whose parents were also first cousins), granddaughter of Dr Fernando Mendes and brother of the poet Moses Mendez.The affair came to nothing and Tabitha married an Italian called Lorenzo Cipriani and died at Florence.