- Jan 1 Emanuele Barbella, Neapolitan composer, dies at 58
- Jan 10 Spranger Barry, Irish Shakespearean actor, dies at 57
- Jan 12 Hugh Mercer, Scottish military officer (fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War), dies of his wounds at the Battle of Princeton at 50
- Feb 19 Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier, dies at 70
- Feb 24 Joseph, King of Portugal (1750-77), dies at 62
- Mar 1 Georg Christoph Wagenzeil, Austria (court) composer & pianist, dies at 62
- Apr 12 Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French satirical novelist (The Skimmer), dies at 70
- May 11 George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras, dies at 58
- May 19 Button Gwinnett, British-born American politician, and signer of the Declaration of Independence,dies from wounds incurred in a duel with rival Lachlan McIntosh at 42
- Jun 16 Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and dramatist (b. 1709)
- Jun 22 Josef Christian, German Baroque sculptor (Zwiefalten Abbey), dies at 71
- Jul 13 Guillaume Coustou Jr, French sculptor (Apollo/Mars/Venus), dies at 61
- Jul 27 William Hayes, English composer and organist, dies at 69
- Aug 17 Giuseppe Scarlatti, Italian composer, dies at 54
- Aug 23 Giuseppe Sellitto, Italian opera composer (Nitocri), dies at 77
- Sep 1 Johann Ernst Bach, German kapellmeister and composer, dies at 55
- Sep 22 John Bartram, American naturalist and explorer, father of American botany, dies at 77
- Sep 25 Johann Heinrich Lambert, French-Swiss mathematician, dies at 49
- Oct 3 Jeremias van Riemsdijk, Dutch administrator (Governor-General of Dutch East Indies 1775-77), dies at 64
- Oct 5 Ján Andrej Segner, Slovak and German mathematician, physicist, and physician, dies at 72
- Oct 7 Simon Fraser, English general, dies in battle
- Oct 13 Dismas Hatas, Czech composer, dies at 52
- Oct 21 Samuel Foote, British actor, dramatist and theatre manager (Mirror), dies at 57
- Nov 10 Cornstalk, Shawnee chief
- Nov 30 Jean-Marie Leclair le cadet (the younger), French composer, dies at 74
- Dec 12 Albrecht von Haller, Swiss experimental physiologist, biologist and author (Acadamy of Science), dies at 69
- Dec 12 Reverend Benjamin Russen, executed at Tyburn England for rape
- Dec 30 Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bayern (1745-77), dies at 50