- Jan 2 Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer, German rococo sculptor, dies at 73
- Jan 6 Johann Trier, German composer, dies at 73
- Jan 7 Antonio Corbisiero, composer, dies at 69
- Jan 8 John Stinstra, Dutch baptist vicar, dies at 81
- Jan 13 Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral, dies at 77
- Jan 15 John Landen, English mathematician (b. 1719)
- Jan 31 Thomas Lewis, Irish-American surveyor, lawyer, and a pioneer of early Virginia, dies at 71