- Jan 5 Johann Gottfried Krebs, German composer, dies at 72
- Jan 21 Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, French writer and botanist (b. 1737)
- Jan 27 Philip Astley, English circus owner "Father of the Modern Circus", dies at 72
- Jan 29 Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (Wissenschaftslehre), dies at 51