- Jan 12 Hugh Mercer, Scottish military officer (fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War), dies of his wounds at the Battle of Princeton at 50
- Feb 9 Seth Pomeroy, American gunsmith and soldier (b. 1706)
- Feb 24 Joseph, King of Portugal (1750-77), dies at 62
- May 11 George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (b. 1719)
- May 16 Button Gwinnet, US revolutionary leader, dies from wounds
- Jun 16 Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and dramatist (b. 1709)
- Jun 22 Josef Christian, German sculptor, dies at 71
- Jul 13 Guillaume Coustou Jr, French sculptor (Apollo/Mars/Venus), dies at 61
- Sep 22 John Bartram, naturalist and explorer, father of American botany, dies at 77
- Sep 25 Johann Heinrich Lambert, mathematician, dies at 49
- Oct 5 Ján Andrej Segner, Slovak and German mathematician, physicist, and physician, dies at 72
- Oct 7 Simon Fraser, English general, dies in battle
- Nov 10 Cornstalk, Shawnee chief
- Dec 12 Albrecht von Haller, Swiss experimental physiologist, biologist and author (Acadamy of Science), dies at 69
- Dec 12 Reverend Benjamin Russen, executed at Tyburn England for rape
- Dec 30 Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bayern (1745-77), dies at 50