- Jan 11 Francis Lightfoot Lee, American advocate for independence (signed US Declaration of Independence), dies at 62
- Jan 13 Elisabeth C von Brunswick-Bevern, wife of Frederick II, dies at 81
- Jan 13 Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, Queen of Prussia as wife of Frederik II the Great, dies at 81
- Jan 30 Johann Abraham Sixt, composer, dies at 40
- Feb 8 Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer, pupil of J. S. Bach, dies at 81
- Feb 11 Antoine Dauvergne, French composer, dies at 83
- Feb 22 Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (b. 1720)
- Feb 27 Benvenuto Robbio San Raffaele, Italian composer, dies at 61
- Mar 1 Juan Manuel Olivares, Venezuelan composer, dies at 36
- Mar 2 Horace Walpole, British horror writer (Castle of Otranto), dies at 79
- Mar 19 Philip Hayes, English composer, dies at 58
James Hutton
Mar 26 James Hutton, geologist, dies
James Hutton
- Mar 31 Betty Washington, younger sister of George Washington, dies at 63
- Apr 3 Nonnosus Madlseder, German composer, dies at 66
- Apr 12 Josef Antonin Stepan, Bohemian composer, dies at 71
- May 17 Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (Le Philosophe sans le savoir), dies at 77
- May 25 John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal, dies at 78
- May 27 Francois-Noal "Gracchus" Babeuf, French utopian socialist, dies at 36
- May 30 Carl Ludwig Junker, German composer, dies at 48
- Jun 17 Aga Mohammed Khan, cruel ruler of Persia, castrated & killed
- Jul 9 Edmund Burke, British author/parliament leader (Reflections), dies at 68
- Jul 11 Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, Wallachian writer (b. 1740)
- Jul 29 Christoph Rheineck, German composer, dies at 48
- Aug 3 Jeffrey Amherst, English gov-gen of America, dies at 80
- Aug 12 Ignaz Franz Xaver Kurzinger, German composer, dies at 73
- Aug 18 Josiah Spode, English potter and founder of Spode pottery works, dies at 64
- Aug 22 Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Austrian general, dies at 73
Mary Wollstonecraft
Sep 10 Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and feminist (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), mother of Mary Shelley, dies of septicaemia at 38
Mary Wollstonecraft
- Sep 18 Louis-Lazare Hoche, French revolutionary general, dies
- Sep 23 Johann Georg Roser, composer, dies at 57
- Oct 9 Elijah B Solomon Zalman, rabbi/Gaon of Vilna Latvia, dies at 77
- Oct 10 Carter Braxton, American plantation owner and signer of the US Declaration of Independence, dies at 61
- Oct 12 Pierre Jélyotte, French composer, dies at 84
- Nov 14 Ivan Shuvalov, 1st Russian Minister of Education and founder of the Moscow University, dies at 70
- Nov 16 King Frederick William II of Prussia (b. 1744) Reigns 1786-97
- Nov 18 Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (b. 1719)
- Nov 29 Samuel Langdon, American President of Harvard University (b. 1723)
- Dec 1 Oliver Wolcott, American judge, signed US Declaration of Independence, dies at 71
- Dec 11 Richard Brocklesby, English physician (b. 1722)
- Dec 22 Giovanni Marco Rutini, Italian composer, dies at 74
- Dec 26 John Wilkes, English radical, journalist (The North Briton) and politician, dies at 72