- Feb 8 Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, dies at 52
- Feb 10 Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein and general, dies at 75
- Feb 18 Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
- Mar 2 Robert J Pothier, French lawyer, dies at 73
- Mar 21 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, French cartographer (b. 1703)
- Mar 22 John Canton, English physicist, dies at 53
- Mar 26 Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer (b. 1704)
- Mar 29 Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher and mathematician (b. 1688)
- Apr 28 Johann Friedrich Struensee, German physician of Christian VII of Denmark, dies at 34
- May 1 Gottfried Achenwall, German lawyer/statistics/economist, dies at 52
- May 22 Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (specialized in history of Trevi, in Umbria), dies at 84
- Jun 12 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer (made important discoveries in the south Indian Ocean, in Tasmania and in New Zealand), killed by local Maori in New Zealand at 48 (b. 1724)
- Jun 18 Gerard van Swieten, Dutch-Austrian physician (Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's personal physician), dies at 72
- Jun 18 Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German judge and philosopher, dies at 65
- Aug 31 William Borlase, English naturalist (b. 1695)
- Sep 30 James Brindley, English engineer (canals and watermills), dies at about 76
- Oct 7 John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist, dies of smallpox at 51
- Nov 5 Pieter Steyn, Dutch grand pensionary (1749-72), dies at 66
- Nov 10 Pedro Antonio Joaquim Correa da Serra Garção, Portuguese poet (b. 1724)
- Nov 11 John Mauritius Quinkhard, portrait painter, dies at 84
- Nov 19 William Nelson, American colonial governor of Virginia (b. 1711)
- Dec 28 Ernst J earl van/of Biron, Russian duke of Courland, dies at 82