This author seemed fond of dwarfs.
About the same epoch Charles I had a page in his court named
Richard Gibson, who was remarkable for his diminutive size and
his ability as a miniature painter. This little artist espoused
another of his class, Anne Shepherd, a dwarf of Queen Henriette
Marie, about his size (45 inches). Mistress Gibson bore nine
children, five of whom arrived at adult age and were of ordinary
proportions. She died at the age of eighty; her husband afterward
became the drawing master of Princesses Mary and Anne, daughters
of James II; he died July 23, 1690, aged seventy-five years.
In 1730 there was born of poor fisher parents at Jelst a child
named Wybrand Lokes. He became a very skilful jeweler, and though
he was of diminutive stature he married a woman of medium height,
by whom he had several children. He was one of the smallest men
ever exhibited, measuring but 25 1/2 inches in height. To support
his family better, he abandoned his trade and with great success
exhibited himself throughout Holland and England. After having
amassed a great fortune he returned to his country, where he died
in 1800, aged seventy. He was very intelligent, and proved his
power of paternity, especially by one son, who at twenty-three
was 5 feet 3 inches tall, and robust.
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