- Jan 4 Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French court architect (Palace de la Concorde), dies at 83
- Jan 28 Jean-Baptiste-Bourguignon d'Anville, French geographer and cartographer, dies at 84
- Feb 9 Joseph Aloysius Assemani, Syrian orientalist (b. 1710)
- Feb 10 Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German Lutheran theologian, dies at 79
- Mar 17 Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and physicist (10 time French award), dies at 82
- Apr 7 Taksin, King of Siam (1767-82), dies at 47
- Apr 12 Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1698)
Anne Bonny
Apr 22 Anne Bonny, Irish pirate, dies in prison at 85
Anne Bonny
- Apr 27 William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, British politician, dies at 72
- May 8 Marquis of Pombal, Prime Minister of Portugal (1756-1777), dies at 82
- May 15 Richard Wilson, Welsh landscape painter, dies at 67
- May 16 Daniuel Charles Solander, botanist, dies
- May 20 William Emerson, British mathematician (b. 1701)
Charles Watson-Wentworth
Jul 1 Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1765-66, 1782), dies in an influenza epidemic at 52
Charles Watson-Wentworth
- Jul 16 Louise Ulrike, queen of Sweden and wife of Adolf Frederik, dies at 61
John Laurens
Aug 27 John Laurens, American soldier, diplomat and abolitionist, killed in battle at 27
John Laurens
- Aug 29 Richard Kempenfelt, Royal Navy Admiral drowns (b. 1718)
- Sep 6 Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (b. 1748)
- Oct 2 Charles Lee, British and U.S. general (b. 1732)
- Nov 22 John Barueth, vicar/pamphleter, dies
- Nov 22 John de Mol, porcelein manufacturer, dies
- Dec 27 Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish philosopher (b. 1697)