Dorothea Maunsell

Dorothea Maunsell became Dorothea Kingsman after being Dorothea Tenducci (born 1750) was an Irish singer at the centre of a scandal after she married (and later divorced) an Italian castrato opera singer named Giusto Fernando Tenducci. She had children with her second husband. Life Maunsell was born in Dublin in about 1750. Her parents were Dorothy and Thomas Maunsell. Her father was a lawyer who became the member of parliament for Killmarnock in 1769 and he owned land in Waterford and Limerick. She has seven siblings and all the brothers did well and her sisters all married well - and then there was Dorothea. Maunsell was brought up in Molesworth Street in Dublin. Tenducci was an opera star of the time who had given lessons to Mozart. He had been (illegally) castrated as a teenager to stop his voice from breaking during puberty. Much of the detail of her life comes from a publication titled "The True and Genuine Narrative of Mr and Mrs Tenducci: in a Letter to a Friend at Bath" which was published in 1768. According to this she had music lessons from Giusto Fernando Tenducci. During the lessons she had a "tender affection" for him although he was fifteen years older than her. Her father was keen to marry her to a man her had chosen and Maunsell realised that Tenducci was a possible alternative.