- Jan 1 Christleib Siegmund Binder, German composer, dies at 65
- Jan 1 Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician, dies at 72
- Jan 2 Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer of Schauensee, Swiss composer and organist, dies at 68
- Jan 4 Thomas Nelson, American member of Continental Congress (signer of Declaration of Independence), plantation owner and Virginia militia general, dies at 50
- Jan 8 Jack Broughton, English bare knuckle boxer (Champion of England 1736-50; published first boxing code), dies at 85
- Jan 10 Pierre Lyonet, Dutch zoologist and cryptologist, dies at 82
- Jan 20 Johann Christoph Oley, German composer, dies at 50
- Jan 23 Frances Brooke, English writer (b. 1724)
- Jan 23 John Cleland, English novelist (Fanny Hill), dies (b. 1709)
- Feb 2 Armand-Louis Couperin, French composer and organist (Notre Dame), dies at 63
Ethan Allen (1738-1789)
Feb 12 American Revolutionary War patriot (lead the Green Mountain Boys), dies of an apoplectic fit at 51
- Feb 19 Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware, dies at 50
- Apr 7 Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)
- Apr 7 Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist and anthropologist who studied comparative anatomy, paleontology and the facial angle, dies at 66
- Apr 26 Peter Ivanovich Panin, Russian general (Pugatshov-uprising), dies at ~67
- May 10 Guillaume-Gommaire Kennis, Belgian violinist and composer, dies at 72
- May 21 John Hawkins, English writer (A General History of the Science and Practice of Music; Life of Samuel Johnson), dies at 70
- May 25 Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
- Jun 7 Vaclav Jan Kopriva, Czech composer and organist, dies at 81
- Jun 12 Jean-Étienne Liotard, Swiss portrait painter (Maria-Theresia), dies at 86
- Jun 14 Johann Wilhelm Hertel, German composer, dies at 61
- Jul 4 Cláudio Manuel da Costa, Brazilian poet, dies at 59
- Jul 13 Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist, dies at 73
- Jul 14 Bernard-René de Launay, French governor of the Bastille prison, murdered during the storming of the Bastille (b.1740)
- Jul 14 Jacques de Flesselles, French provost, shot and killed in the early days of the French Revolution at 58
- Jul 15 Jacques Duphly, French composer and harpsichordist, dies at 74
- Jul 22 Joseph-François Foulon, French politician, dies at 74
- Aug 25 Mary Ball Washington, mother of George, dies
- Sep 11 Luca Sorkočević, Croatian nobleman and composer (composed 1st Croatian symphony), commits suicide at 55
- Sep 12 Franz Xaver Richter, Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theorist, dies at 79
- Sep 23 John Rogers, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
- Sep 28 Thomas Day, British author and abolitionist (The History of Sandford and Merton), killed by fall from a horse at Wargrave Berkshire at 41
- Oct 10 Pierre-Louis Couperin, French organist and composer, dies at 34
- Oct 15 John Morgan, American physician-in-chief of Continental Army and co-founder of the Medical College at the University of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in Colonial America, dies at 54
- Oct 24 Joaquín Martínez de Oxinagas, composer, dies at 69
- Oct 24 Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken, Dutch poet, dies at 68
- Oct 27 John Cook, American farmer and Governor of Delaware (b. 1730)
- Dec 3 Claude-Joseph Vernet, French painter, dies at 75
- Dec 12 John Ponsonby, Irish politician, dies at 76
- Dec 23 Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of 'Signed French', dies at 77