Interesting article in Freemasonry Today. I can't give a direct link so please go here http://freemasonrytoday.com/magazine click on the latest issue Number 35 ~ Autumn 2016. Turn to page 47 the article is called "the Prince and the Fugitive" by Kevin L Gest. It has information about H J da Costa otherwise Hipólito José da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça. He was from Portugal and fell foul of the Inquisition. The article does not say whether he was of Sephardic origin but I recognise the da Costa name from some of my research into an earlier period and thought the group might like to read this article in case it touched on anyone's research. Also a little about him here too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip%C3%B3lito_da_Costa