1740s - Wikiwand

The 1740s (pronounced "seventeen-forties") decade ran from January 1, 1740, to December 31, 1749. Many events during this decade sparked an impetus for the Age of Reason. Military and technological advances brought one of the first instances of a truly global war to take place here, when Maria Theresa of Austria’s struggle to succeed the various crowns of her father King Charles VI led to a war involving nearly all European states in the War of the Austrian Succession, eventually spilling over to North America with the War of Jenkins’ Ear (which went on to involve many of the West’s first ferocious maritime battles). Capitalism grew robust following the fallout of the South Sea bubble two decades prior and the subsequent reign of Sir Robert Walpole, whose rule ended in the earlier half of this decade.

From top left, clockwise: The War of Jenkins' Ear, a conflict between the British and Spanish Empires lasting from 1739 to 1748. The War of the Austrian Succession from 1740 to 1748, caused by the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740. The siege of Trichinopoly, a conflict between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire over the Carnatic region. George Anson burns Paita, a settlement in Peru in 1742 whilst on a voyage around the world. Nader Shah declares war on the Ottoman Empire in 1743 resulting in the Ottoman–Persian War. Following the end of the First Silesian War in 1742, the Second Silesian War occurs as a continuation of the first war. A Leyden jar is discovered independently by Ewald Georg von Kleist and Pieter van Musschenbroek. The Jacobite rising of 1745, an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father.

1740

January–March

January 8 – All 237 crewmen on the Dutch East India Company ship Rooswijk are drowned when the vessel strikes the shoals of Goodwin Sands, off of the coast of England, as it is beginning its second voyage to the Indies. The wreckage is discovered more than 250 years later, in 2004.^[1]
February 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Newton as Wilmington, North Carolina, named for Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington and patron of Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston.
March 16 – King Edward of the Miskito Indians signs a treaty making his kingdom, located on the coast of modern-day Nicaragua, a protectorate of Great Britain.^[2]
March 25 – Construction begins on Bethesda Orphanage for boys near Savannah, Georgia, founded by George Whitefield.

April–June

April 8 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captures the Spanish ship of the line Princesa off Cape Finisterre and takes her into British service.
May 31 – Frederick II becomes King in Prussia upon the death of his father, Frederick William I.
June 1 – Plantation Act 1740 or Naturalization Act 1740 of the Parliament of Great Britain comes into effect providing for Protestant alien immigrants (including Huguenots, and also Jews) residing in the American colonies for 7 years to receive British nationality.
June 16 – Pour le Mérite first awarded in Prussia as a military honour.
June 26 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Siege of Fort Mose – A Spanish column of 300 regular troops, free Black militia and Indian auxiliaries storms Britain's strategically crucial position of Fort Mose, Florida.

July–September

July 7 – Adam Smith sets out from Scotland to take up a scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford.^[3]
July 11 – Pogrom: Jews are expelled from Little Russia.
August 1 – The song Rule, Britannia! is first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in England.^[4]
August 17 – Pope Benedict XIV succeeds Pope Clement XII, as the 247th pope.
September 8 – Hertford College, Oxford, England, is founded for the first time.^[5]

October–December

October 9–22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre 5,000–10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia.^[6]
October 20 – Maria Theresa inherits the hereditary dominions of the Habsburg monarchy (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and modern-day Belgium) under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 on the death of her father, Charles VI. Her succession to the Holy Roman Empire is contested widely because she is a woman, but she will reign for 40 years.
November 6 – Samuel Richardson's popular and influential epistolary novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, is published anonymously in London.
November 14 – The University of Pennsylvania is officially established.
December 16 – Frederick II of Prussia invades the Habsburg possession of Silesia, starting the War of the Austrian Succession.

Date unknown

Enfield, North Carolina, is founded.
Spain begins construction on Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of St. Augustine, Florida.

Births

1740

February 4 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet, composer (d. 1795)
February 15 – Juan Andrés, Spanish Jesuit (d. 1817)
February 16 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver (d. 1813)
February 17 – John Sullivan, American General in the American Revolutionary War, delegate in the Continental Congress (d. 1795)
March – Johann van Beethoven, German musician, father of Ludwig van Beethoven (d. 1792)
March 16 – Johann Jacob Schweppe, German-born inventor, founder of the Schweppes Company (d. 1821)
April 7 – Haym Salomon, Polish-Jewish American financier of the American Revolution (d. 1785)
April 14 – Anna Strong, Patriot spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1812)
May 7 – Nikolai Arkharov, Russian police chief (d. 1814)

June 2 – Marquis de Sade, French author, for whom sadism is named (d. 1814)
June 24 – Juan Ignacio Molina, Spanish-Chilean Jesuit priest, naturalist, historian, translator, geographer, botanist, ornithologist and linguist (d. 1829)
June 27 – James Woodforde, English clergyman and diarist (d. 1803)
July 27 – Jeanne Baré, French explorer (d. 1803)
August 23 – Emperor Ivan VI of Russia (d. 1764)
August 26 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1810)
September 12 – Johann Heinrich Jung, German writer (d. 1817)
September 23 – Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (d. 1813)
September 25 – Hercules Mulligan, tailor and spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1825)
October 29 – James Boswell, Scottish author (d. 1795)
October 31 – Philip James de Loutherbourg, English artist (d. 1812)
December – Elisabeth Olin, Swedish opera singer (d. 1828)

Ali Pasha of Ioannina, Albanian ruler (d. 1822)
Margaret Bingham, Countess of Lucan, born Margaret Smith, English portrait miniature painter and writer (d. 1814)^[161]
John Milton, American politician and officer of the Continental Army (d. 1817) (earliest estimated date of birth)
Septimanie d'Egmont, French salonist (d. 1773)

1741

January 14 – Benedict Arnold, American Revolutionary War general, traitor (d. 1801)
January 27 – Hester Thrale, Welsh diarist (d. 1821)
February 7 – Henry Fuseli, Swiss painter and writer (d. 1825)

March 13 – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1790)
March 17 – William Withering, British physician (d. 1799)
March 20 – Jean Antoine Houdon, French sculptor (d. 1828)
April 14 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)
May 13 – Ingeborg Akeleye, Norwegian noble known for her love life (d. 1800)
May 23 – Andrea Luchesi, Italian composer (d. 1801)
June 11 – Joseph Warren, American Patriot, physician (d. 1775)
June 26 – John Langdon, American politician (d. 1819)
September 22 – Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (d. 1811)
October 4 – Edmond Malone, Irish scholar (d. 1812)
October 18 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general, author (d. 1803)
October 24 – Johann August von Starck, German pastor (d. 1816)
November 15 – Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss physiognomist (d. 1801)
Date unknown –
- Nikolaos Koutouzis, Greek painter, poet and priest (d. 1813)
- Catherine Antonovna of Brunswick, German-Russian noble (d. 1807)
- Gelelemend, Lenape chief (d. 1811)

1742

January 8 – Philip Astley, English circus organizer (d. 1814)
March 9 – Michael Anckarsvärd, Swedish politician (d. 1838)
March 10 – Sampson Salter Blowers, American lawyer, jurist (d. 1842)

March 14 – Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, Iranian king (d. 1797)
March 12 – Aletta Haniel, German business person (d. 1815)
April 28 – Henry Dundas, British statesman (d. 1811)
May 6 – Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor, botanist (d. 1809)
June 25 – Johann Schweighäuser, German classical scholar (d. 1830)
June 26 – Arthur Middleton, American politician (d. 1787)
June 28 – William Hooper, American statesman (d. 1790)
July 21 – John Cleves Symmes, American statesman (d. 1814)
July 27 – Nathanael Greene, American general (d. 1786)
August 14 – Pope Pius VII (b. Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti), Italian Benedictine (d. 1823)

September 14 – James Wilson, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1798)
October 3 – Anders Jahan Retzius, Swedish chemist, botanist (d. 1821)
October 6 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (d. 1785)
November 5 – Richard Cosway, English artist (d. 1821)

December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (d. 1785)
December 16 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (d. 1819)
December 26 (bapt.) – George Chalmers, Scottish antiquarian (d. 1825)
date unknown – Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian indigenous rebel leader (d. 1781)
date unknown – Rafaela Herrera, Nicaraguan heroine (d. 1805)
date unknown – Francis Nash, American military officer (d. 1777)
date unknown – Hendrik Frans de Cort, Flemish painter (d. 1810)

1743

January 1 – Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Harburn, British admiral (d. 1802)
January 18 – Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, French philosopher, "le philosophe inconnu" (d. 1803)
January 25 – Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, German philosopher (d. 1819)
February 13 – Sir Joseph Banks, British naturalist and botanist (d. 1820)
February 14 – George Morgan, American merchant and Indian agent (d. 1810)
February 19 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian composer (d. 1805)
February 23 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1818)
February 28 – René Just Haüy, French "father of modern crystallography" (d. 1822)
March – Joseph Brant, Mohawk leader (d. 1807)
March 4 – Johann David Wyss, Swiss author (d. 1818)
March 14 – Hannah Cowley, English dramatist and poet (d. 1809)
March 28 (March 17 O.S.) – Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, Russian princess, courtier and patron of the arts and sciences (d. 1810)
April – Etta Palm d'Aelders, Dutch-French feminist (d. 1799)
April 1 – Richard Butler American general (d. 1793)
April 13 – Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, author of the Declaration of American Independence (d. 1826)
May 14 – Louis Lebègue Duportail French military leader in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1802)
May 17 – Seth Warner American revolutionary hero (d. 1784)
May 20 – Toussaint Louverture, Haitian rebel (d. 1803)
May 24 – Jean-Paul Marat, French revolutionary, doctor and scientist (d. 1793)
June 2 – Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian Freemason (d. 1795)
June 3
- José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa, Spanish viceroy of Peru (d. 1821)
- Lucia Galeazzi Galvani, Italian scientist (d. 1788)
August 7 – Susan Carnegie, writer and founder of the first public asylum in Scotland (d.1821)
August 26 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794)
September 11 – Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Danish painter (d. 1809)
September 17 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (d. 1794)
October 20 – François Chopart, French surgeon (1795)
November 11 – Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish botanist (d. 1828)
December 1 – Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist, discoverer of uranium (1789), zirconium (1789), and cerium (1803) (d. 1817)
December 23 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (d. 1803)
date unknown
- Károly Hadaly, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1834)
- Elisabeth Christina von Linné, Swedish botanist (d. 1782)

1744

February 6 – Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon (d. 1795)
February 23 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty (d. 1812)
May 19 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen of George III of Great Britain (d. 1818)
May 21 – Samuel Ireland, British author and engraver (d. 1800)
May 31 – Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor (d. 1817)
July 20 – Joshua Clayton, American politician (d. 1798)
August 1 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French naturalist (d. 1829)
August 16 – Pierre Méchain, French astronomer (d. 1804)
August 25 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (d. 1803)
September 25 – King Frederick William II of Prussia (d. 1797)
date unknown
- Marie Barch, Danish ballerina (d. 1827)
- Marie-Louise-Adélaïde Boizot, French engraver (d. 1800)

1745

c. January – Isaac Titsingh, Dutch scholar, merchant-trader and ambassador (d. 1812)
January 1 – Anthony Wayne, United States Army officer, statesman and member of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1796)
January 6 – Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1799)
January 7 – Johan Christian Fabricius, Danish zoologist (d. 1808)
January 9 – Caleb Strong, American politician (d. 1819)
February – Samuel Hearne, English explorer, fur-trader, author, and naturalist (d. 1792)
February 2 – Hannah More, English religious writer, Romantic poet and philanthropist (d. 1833)

February 18 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)
February 20 – Henry James Pye, English poet (d. 1813)
February 21 – Olof Tempelman, Swedish architect (d. 1816)
February 24 – Fyodor Ushakov, a Russian Saint and Admiral (d. 1817)
March 4
- Charles Dibdin, English composer (d. 1814)
- Kazimierz Pułaski, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1779)
March 10 – John Gunby, Maryland soldier in the American Revolutionary War (d. 1807)
March 25 – John Barry, officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War and later in the United States Navy (d. 1803)
April 6 – Thomas Peters, Dutch supercentenarian (d. 1857)
April 20 – Philippe Pinel, French physician (d. 1826)
April 29 – Oliver Ellsworth, American founding father and 3rd Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1807)
July 8 – Sara Banzet, French educator and diarist (d. 1774)
July 13 – Robert Calder, British naval officer (d. 1818)
July 17 – Timothy Pickering, American politician (d. 1829)
August 20 – Francis Asbury, American Methodist Bishop (d. 1816)
August 30 – Johann Hieronymus Schröter, German astronomer (d. 1816)
September 4 – Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Russian rabbi and founder of Chabad (d. 1812)
September 16 – Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (d. 1813)
November 13 – Valentin Haüy, French educator, founder of the first school for the blind (d. 1822)
December 2 – Queen Jeongsun, Korean regent (d. 1805)
December 15 – Johann Gottfried Koehler, German astronomer (d. 1801)
December 24 – William Paterson, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1806)
date unknown
- Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, Peruvian indigenous rebel leader (d. 1781)
- Gim Hongdo (Danwon), Korean painter (d. 1806)
- Robert H. Harrison, American jurist and lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army (d. 1790)
- Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), slave, abolitionist, author (d. 1797)

1746

January 4 – Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States (d. 1813)
January 12 – Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue (d. 1827)
January 24 – King Gustav III of Sweden (d. 1792)

February 4 – Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish general and nationalist (d. 1817)
February 5 – Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, American politician and soldier (d. 1825)
March 3 – Izabela Czartoryska, Polish magnate princess (d. 1835)
March 7 – André Michaux, French botanist (d. 1802)

March 30 – Francisco Goya, Spanish painter (d. 1828)
April 4 – John Andrews, American clergyman, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania (d. 1813)
May 9 – Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and geometer (d. 1818)
June 3 – James Hook, English composer (d. 1827)
July 3 – Henry Grattan, Irish politician (d. 1820)
July 16 – Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer (d. 1826)
July 23 – Bernardo de Gálvez, Spanish military leader, aids the United States in its quest for independence in the American Revolutionary War (d. 1786)
July 30 – Louise du Pierry, French astronomer (d. 1807)
September 28 – Sir William Jones, English philologist (d. 1794)
October 7 – William Billings, American composer (d. 1800)
November 27 – Robert R. Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1813)
December 29 – Saverio Cassar, Gozitan priest and rebel leader (d. 1805)
date unknown
- Hong Liangji, Chinese scholar, statesman, political theorist and philosopher
- Isaac Swainson, English botanist (d. 1812)
- Victor d'Hupay, French philosopher and writer (d. 1818)
- Ekaterina Kozitskaya, Russian industrialist (d. 1833)
- Ebenezer Pemberton, American educator (d. 1835)

1747

January 10 – Abraham-Louis Breguet, Swiss horologist, inventor (d. 1823)
January 15 – John Aikin, English doctor and writer (d. 1822)^[162]
January 19 – Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer (d. 1826)
February 21 – Eugenio Espejo, Ecuadorian scientist (d. 1795)
February 28 – Justin Morgan, American horse breeder and composer (d. 1798)

May 5 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1792)^[163]
May 7 – Judith van Dorth, Dutch Orangist (d. 1799)
June 23 – Michele Troja, Italian physician (d. 1827)
July 2 – Rose Bertin, French fashion designer (d. 1813)
July 6 – John Paul Jones, American naval captain (d. 1792)^[164]
September 9 – Thomas Coke, first American Methodist Bishop (d. 1814)
October 8 – Jean-François Rewbell, French politician (d. 1807)
September 12 – Caleb Brewster, Patriot spy during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1827)
December 12 – Anna Seward, English writer (d. 1809)^[165]
December 31 – Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (d. 1794)
date unknown
- François Tourte, French musical instrument maker (d. 1835)
- Francis Salvador, American patriot (d. 1776)
- Anne Pépin, Senegalese Signara (d. 1837)
- Grigory Shelikhov, Russian merchant (d. 1795)

1748

January 19 – Antonio Carnicero, Spanish painter (d. 1814)
February 2 – Adam Weishaupt, German founder of the Order of the Illuminati (d. 1811)

February 15 – Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher (d. 1832)^[166]
February 22 – Timothy Dexter, American businessman (d. 1806)
February 27 – Anders Sparrman, Swedish naturalist (d. 1820)
March 5
- William Shield, English violinist, composer (d. 1829)
- Jonas C. Dryander, Swedish botanist (d. 1810)
March 8 – William V, Prince of Orange (d. 1806)
March 10 – John Playfair, Scottish scientist (d. 1819)
April 12 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
April 13 – Joseph Bramah, English inventor, locksmith (d. 1814)
April 27
- Pierre-Louis Ginguené, French author (d. 1816) ^[167]
- Adamantios Korais, Greek scholar (d. 1833)
May 3 – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, French cleric, constitutional theorist (d. 1836)
May 7 – Olympe de Gouges, French playwright (d. 1793)^[168]
May 10 – Louis Pierre Vieillot, French ornithologist (d. 1830)
May 28 – Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (d. 1825)
June 30 – Jacques Dominique, comte de Cassini, French astronomer (d. 1845)
August 8 – Johann Friedrich Gmelin, German naturalist (d. 1804)

August 9 – Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (d. 1809)^[169]
August 30 – Jacques-Louis David, French painter (d. 1825)^[170]
October 7 – King Charles XIII of Sweden (Charles II of Norway) (d. 1818)
October 13 – Johann Dominicus Fiorillo, German painter, art historian (d. 1821)
November 11 – King Charles IV of Spain (d. 1819)^[171]
November 13 – William Chalmers, Swedish merchant (d. 1811)
December 9 – Claude Louis Berthollet, French chemist (d. 1822)
December 14 – William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (d. 1811)
date unknown
- Gioacchino Navarro, Maltese priest and poet (d. 1813)
- James Sayers, English caricaturist (d. 1823)
- Timur Shah, Afghan king (d. 1793)
- Thomas Holloway, English portrait painter, engraver (d. 1827
- Stylianos Vlasopoulos, Greek judge, writer (d. 1822)

1749

January 13 – Friedrich Müller, German painter, narrator, lyricist and dramatist (d. 1825)
January 16 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist (d. 1803)
January 24 – Charles James Fox, English politician (d. 1806)
January 29 – King Christian VII of Denmark (d. 1808)
March 9 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French politician (d. 1791)
March 10 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian librettist (d. 1838)

March 23 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician, astronomer (d. 1827)
March 23 – Ulla von Höpken, Swedish courtier, influential socialite (d. 1810)
May 17 – Edward Jenner, English physician (d. 1823)
April 11 – Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, French portrait painter (d. 1803)
June 15 – Georg Joseph Vogler, German composer (d. 1814)
June 19 – Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, French revolutionary (d. 1796)
July 16 – Cyrus Griffin, last American President of the Continental Congress (d. 1810)

August 24 – Madame Mère (Letizia Ramolino Bonaparte) mother of Napoleon I (d. 1836)

August 28 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and politician (d. 1832)
September 25 – Abraham Gottlob Werner, German geologist (d. 1817)
September 30 – Comte Siméon Joseph Jérôme, French jurist and politician (d. 1842)
October 25 – Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, Swedish ambassador (d. 1802)
November 3 – Daniel Rutherford, Scottish physician, chemist and botanist (d. 1819)
November 17 – Nicolas Appert French inventor (d. 1841)
November 23 – Edward Rutledge, American statesman (d. 1800)
December 2 – Elisabeth Berenberg, German banker (d. 1809)
December 17 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (d. 1801)
December 24 – Karl Gottfried Hagen, German chemist (d. 1829)
December 25 – Samuel Jackson Pratt (known as Courtney Melmoth), English writer, poet and actor (d. 1814)^[172]
date unknown – Charlotte Melmoth, British & American actress (d. 1823)

Deaths

1740

January – Louise Élisabeth de Joybert, politically active Canadian governors' wife (b. 1673)
January 5 – Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1667)
January 17 – Matthias Buchinger, German artist (b. 1674)
January 20 – Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli, Italian jurist of religious law and historian (b. 1655)
January 21 – Nicholas Trott, colonial magistrate, South Carolina Chief Justice (b. 1663)
January 27 – Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (b. 1692)
January 29 – Richard Lumley, 2nd Earl of Scarbrough (b. 1686)
February 6 – Pope Clement XII (b. 1652)^[173]
February 23 – Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, Italian artist (b. 1656)
February 29 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal (b. 1667)
March 23 – Olof Rudbeck the Younger, Swedish scientist and explorer (b. 1660)
April 28 – Bajirao I, Great Maratha warrior and Prime Minister of Marartha Empire (b.1700)
April 23 – Thomas Tickell, English writer (b. 1685)
May 17 – Jean Cavalier, French Protestant rebel leader (b. 1681)
May 31 – Frederick William I, King in Prussia (b. 1688)
June 1 – Samuel Werenfels, Swiss theologian (b. 1657)
June 6 – Alexander Spotswood, British governor of Virginia Colony (b. 1676)
June 17
- Theophilus of Corte, Italian Roman Catholic priest, preacher and missionary, canonized (b. 1676)
- William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)
June 18 – Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye, Anglo-Irish nobleman (b. 1652)
July 2 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian (b. 1656)
October 5 – Johann Philipp Baratier, German scholar (b. 1721)
October 11 – Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, Duchess of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (b. 1679)
October 20 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1685)
October 28 – Anna, Empress of Russia (b. 1693)
December 1 – John Abernethy, Irish Protestant minister (b. 1680)
December 20 – Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, British military officer and statesman (b. 1675)
December 30 – John Senex, English geographer (b. ca. 1678)^[174]

1741

January 15 – Ramon Despuig, Spanish-born 67th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1670)
February 13 – Johann Joseph Fux, Austrian composer (b. 1660)
February 21 – Jethro Tull, British agriculturist (b. 1674)
March 16 – Eleonora Luisa Gonzaga, Tuscan princess (b. 1686)
March 17 – Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French poet (b. 1671)
March 31 – Pieter Burmann the Elder, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1668)
April 10 – Celia Fiennes, English travel writer (b. 1662)
May 21 – Henry Dawnay, 2nd Viscount Downe, Irish peer (b. 1664)
May 24 – Lord Augustus FitzRoy, Royal Navy officer during the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (b. 1716)
May 25 – Daniel Ernst Jablonski, German theologian (b. 1660)
June 14 – Landgravine Caroline of Hesse-Rotenburg, German noble (b. 1714)
June 18 – François Pourfour du Petit, French anatomist, ophthalmologist and surgeon (b. 1664)
July 3 – Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, Sardinian queen consort (b. 1711)

July 28 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)
August 4 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer (b. 1676)
August 31 – Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (b. 1681)
September 7 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (b. 1689)
September 28 – Edward Bayly, Irish politician (b. 1684)
October 12 – Joseph Talcott, British Governor of the Connecticut Colony for more than 17 years, since 1724. (b. 1670)
November 18 – Stephen Delancey, major colonial New York figure (b. 1663)
November 24 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (b.1688)^[175]
December 14 – Charles Rollin, French historian (b. 1661)
December 19 – Vitus Bering, Danish-born Russian explorer (b. 1681)
December 21 – Bernard de Montfaucon, French Benedictine monk (b. 1655)
December 31 – Andrew Archer, English politician (b. 1659)

1742

January 1 – Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1686)

January 25 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer (b. 1656)^[176]
February 22 – Charles Rivington, English publisher (b. 1688)
March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (b. 1670)
April 2 – James Douglas, Scottish physician, anatomist (b. 1675)
April 15 – Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire (b. 1662)
April 17 – Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (b. 1664)
May 13 – Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b. 1719)
May 21 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
May 26 – Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (b. 1672)
June 18 – John Aislabie, British politician (b. 1670)
June 27 – Nathan Bailey, English philologist, lexicographer
July 1 – Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, Czech composer (b. 1684)
July 2 – Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre, British peer, renowned horticulturist (b. 1713)
July 4 – Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (b. 1671)
July 9 – John Oldmixon, English historian (b. 1673)
July 12 – Evaristo Abaco, Italian composer (b. 1675)
July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (b. 1662)
July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (b. 1675)
July 23 – Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism. (b. 1669)
July 30 – Nicholas Roosevelt (1658–1742), Dutch-American politician (b. 1658)
August 14 – Maria van Lommen, Dutch gold- and silversmith and guild member (b. 1688)
August 25 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
September 18 – Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1664)
September 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (b. 1708)
September 27 – Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (b. 1672)
September 28 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (b. 1663)
November 12 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician, chemist (b. 1660)
November 20 – Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b. 1661)
November 24 – Andrew Bradford, American publisher (b. 1686)
December 18 – William Fairfield, Massachusetts Speaker of the House of Deputies (b. 1662)
December 31 – Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)

1743

January 3 – Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/painter (b. 1657)
January 29 – Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV (b. 1653)
January 29 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (b. 1658)
February 1 – Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian composer (b. 1657)
February 7 – Lodovico Giustini, Italian composer (b. 1685)
February 18 – Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
March 22 – Emerentia von Düben, Swedish royal favorite (b. 1669)
March 28 – Karl Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, German noble (b. 1712)
April 4 – Daniel Neal, English historian (b. 1678)
April 12 – Augustine Washington, father of the future first President of the United States (b. 1694)
April 20 – Alexandre-François Desportes, French painter (b. 1661)
May 3 – Moritz Georg Weidmann, German bookseller (b. 1686)
May 6 – Andrew Michael Ramsay, English Freemason (b. 1686)
May 10 – Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal and Munster (b. 1667)
March 14 – Jean-Paul Bignon, French priest and man of letters (b. 1662)
March 23 – Lancelot Blackburne, Archbishop of York (b. 1658)
April 15 – Eiler Hagerup, Norwegian Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1685)
June 16 – Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, eldest daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan (b. 1673)
July 2 – Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, British politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom^[177] (b. c. 1674)
August 5 – John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, English statesman and writer (b. 1696)
August 30 – Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, British politician (b. 1663)
September 14 – Nicolas Lancret, French painter (b. 1690)
September 21 – Jai Singh II, King of Amber-Juiper, India (b. 1688)
September 23 – Erik Benzelius the younger, Swedish priest (b. 1675)
October 4 – John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, Scottish soldier (b. 1678)
December 27 – Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (b. 1659)
date unknown
- Manuela Desvalls Vergós, Spanish nun, agent and political controversialist
- Pietro Paolo Troisi, Maltese artist (b. 1686)

1744

January 11 – James Hamilton, 7th Earl of Abercorn (b. 1686)
January 22 – Pierre Lepature, French artist (b. 1659)
January 23 – Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (b. 1668)
January 26 – Ludwig Andreas von Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
February 11 – Hedvig Taube, mistress to King Frederick I of Sweden (b. 1714)
February 14 – John Hadley, English mathematician (b. 1682)
March 3 – Jean Barbeyrac, French jurist (b. 1674)
March 4 – John Anstis, English herald (b. 1669)
April 25 – Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer (b. 1701)
May 25 – Charles Edzard, Prince of East Frisia (b. 1716)
May 30 – Alexander Pope, English writer (b. 1688)
June 29
- André Campra, French composer (b. 1660)
- John Eames, English academic (b. 1686)
June 30 – Januarius Maria Sarnelli, Italian Roman Catholic priest and blessed (b. 1702)
July – Mihai Racoviță, Prince of Moldavia and Prince of Wallachia (b. c. 1660)
August 9 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English patron of the arts (b. 1673)
August 13 – John Cruger, Dutch-born Mayor of New York (b. 1678)
August 26 – William Byrd II, prominent planter from Virginia (b. 1674)
September 28 – Princess Thérèse of France, daughter of Louis XV of France (b. 1736)
October 10 – Johann Heinrich Schulze, German professor and polymath (b. 1687)
October 18 – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, English friend of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (b. 1660)
October 31 – Leonardo Leo, Italian composer (b. 1694)
December 8 – Marie Anne de Mailly-Nesle, French mistress of King Louis XV (b. 1717)
December 23 – Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, duchess and regent of Lorraine (b. 1676)
date unknown – Catherine Jérémie, French-Canadian botanist (b. 1644)

1745

January 16 – Josiah Franklin, English-born American businessman, father of Benjamin Franklin (b. 1657)
January 20 – Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1697)
February 23 – Joseph Effner, German architect (b. 1687)
February 26 – Henry Scudamore, 3rd Duke of Beaufort, English nobleman (b. 1707)
March 27 – Tommaso Crudeli, Florentine free thinker imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition (b. 1702)

March 18 – Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1676)^[178]
May 9 – Tomaso Antonio Vitali, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1663)
May 22 – François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French military leader (b. 1671)
September 30 – Sir John Baird, 2nd Baronet, British politician (b. 1686)

October 19 – Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish writer (b. 1667)
October 22 – Isaac Greenwood, American mathematician (b. 1702)
November 16 – James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, exiled Irish statesman and soldier (b. 1665)
December 8 – Étienne Fourmont, French orientalist (b. 1683)
December 19 – Jean-Baptiste van Loo, French painter (b. 1684)
December 23 – Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (b. 1679)
date unknown – Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie, Swedish-born salonnière (b. 1695)

1746

February 4 – Robert Blair, Scottish poet and cleric (b. 1699)
February 8 – Anton Josef Kirchweger, German writer
February 26 – Thomas Watson, 3rd Earl of Rockingham, British politician (b. 1715)
February 28 – Hermann von der Hardt, German historian (b. 1660)
March 18 – Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia, regent of Russia (b. 1718)
March 20 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (b. 1656)
April 29 – William Flower, 1st Baron Castle Durrow, Irish politician (b. 1685)
May 6 – William Tennent, Scottish-American theologian (b. 1673)
May 13 – James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth, British noble (b. 1713)
May 22 – Thomas Southerne, Irish playwright (b. 1660)
June 14 – Colin Maclaurin, Scottish mathematician (b. 1698)
July 2 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian (b. 1656)

July 9 – King Philip V of Spain (b. 1683)
July 28 – John Peter Zenger, American printer, whose court case advanced freedom of the press in the American colonies (b. 1697)
July 30 – Francesco Trevisani, Italian painter (b. 1656)
August 6 – Christian VI, King of Denmark and Norway (b. 1699)
August 8 – Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (b. 1694)
September 25 – St George Gore-St George, Irish politician (b. 1722)
October 2 – Josiah Burchett, English Secretary of the Admiralty (b. c. 1666)
November 14 – Georg Steller, German naturalist (b. 1709)
December 6 – Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish poet (b. 1665)
December 8 – Charles Radclyffe, British politician and rebel, by beheading after being convicted of treason against the Crown (b. 1693)

1747

January 2 – Lord George Graham, Royal Navy officer and MP (b. 1715)
January 16 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)^[179]
January 26 – Willem van Mieris, Dutch painter (b. 1662)
March 2 – Margravine Sophie Charlotte of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, German noble (b. 1713)
March 14 – Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, German aristocrat and general (b. 1661)
March 16 – Christian Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, father of Catherine II of Russia (b. 1690)
March 23 – Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, French soldier (b. 1675)
April 2 – Johann Jacob Dillenius, German botanist (b. 1684)
April 3 – Francesco Solimena, Italian painter (b. 1657)
April 7 – Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1676)
April 9 – Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, Scottish clan chief (b. c. 1667)
April 14 – Jean-Frédéric Osterwald, Swiss Protestant pastor (b. 1663)
May 9 – John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, Scottish soldier and diplomat (b. 1673)
May 28 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (b. 1715)^[180]
May 31 – Andrei Osterman, Russian statesman (b. 1686)
June 8 – Alan Brodrick, 2nd Viscount Midleton, English cricketer (b. 1702)
June 17 – Avdotya Chernysheva, Russian noble, lady in waiting (b. 1693)

June 19
- Nader Shah, Persian leader (b. 1688)
- Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1669)
July 9 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer (b. 1670)^[181]
October 7 – Giulia Lama, Italian painter (b. 1681)^[182]
October 9 – David Brainerd, American missionary (b. 1718)
October 10 – John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. c. 1674)
October 4 – Amaro Pargo, Spanish corsair (b. 1678)
November 17 – Alain-René Lesage, French writer (b. 1668)^[183]
December 2 – Vincent Bourne, English classical scholar (b. 1695)

1748

January 1 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1667)
January 16 – Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1684)
February 18 – Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
March 7 – Élisabeth Thérèse de Lorraine, French noblewoman, Princess of Epinoy by marriage (b. 1664)
March 14 – George Wade, British military leader (b. 1673)
March 23 – Johann Gottfried Walther, German music theorist, organist and composer (b. 1684)
April 8 – Empress Xiaoxianchun of Qing dynasty (b. 1712)
April 12 – William Kent, English architect (b. c. 1685)
April 16 – Muhammad Shah, Mughal emperor of India (b. 1702)
May 12 – Thomas Lowndes, British astronomer (b. 1692)
May 17 – Henri, Duke of Elbeuf, member of the House of Lorraine (b. 1661)
June 16 – Jean Philippe d'Orléans, illegitimate son of future French regent Philippe d'Orleans (b. 1702)
June 28 – Marretje Arents, Dutch rebel leader (b. 1712)
August 27 – James Thomson, Scottish poet (b. 1700)^[184]
September 6 – Edmund Gibson, English jurist (b. 1669)
September 10 – Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo, Filipino founder of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (b. 1663)
September 12 – Anne Bracegirdle, English actress (b. c. 1671)
September 21 – John Balguy, English philosopher (b. 1686)^[185]
November 25 – Isaac Watts, English hymn writer (b. 1674)^[186]
December 2 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (b. 1662)

1749

February 1 – Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, youngest daughter of Louis XIV (b. 1677)
February 8 – Jan van Huysum, Dutch painter (b. 1682)
February 11 – Philip Livingston, American politician (b. 1686)
April 14 – Balthasar Denner, German artist (b. 1685)
May 11 – Catharine Trotter Cockburn, English novelist, dramatist, and philosopher (b. 1674)
May 28 – Pierre Subleyras, French painter (b. 1699)
June 18 – Ambrose Philips, English poet (b. 1675)
July 1 – William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b. 1675)^[187]
July 12
- Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois, Governor of New France (b. c.1671)
- George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter of England (b. 1702)
July 23 – Ingeborg i Mjärhult, Swedish soothsayer (b. 1665)
August 13 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German critic, poet (b. 1719)
August 29 – Matthias Bel, Hungarian pastor, polymath (b. 1684)

September 10 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician, physicist (b. 1706)
September 14 – Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, English soldier, politician (b. 1675)
October 4 – Baron Franz von der Trenck, Austrian soldier (b. 1711)
October 9 – Luís da Cunha, Ambassador of Portugal (b. 1662)
November 14 – Maruyama Gondazaemon, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1713)
November 19 – Carl Heinrich Biber, German violinist and composer (b. 1681)
December 4 – Claudine Guérin de Tencin, French salon holder (b. 1682)
December 5 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French-Canadian explorer and trader (b. 1685)
December 19 – Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (b. 1672)
December 25 – John Lindsay, 20th Earl of Crawford, British Army general (b. 1702)
date unknown – Maria Oriana Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (b. 1656)

References

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