Muhammad bin Saud becomes head of the House of Saud. The remaining ruins of Liverpool Castle in England are finally demolished. In late 1726, Nader recaptured Mashhad. Births January 14 – Jacques-Donatien Le Ray, French supporter of the American Revolution (d. 1803) January 17 – Hugh Mercer, brigadier general in the American Continental Army, and a close friend to George Washington (d. 1777) February 4 – Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie, Director-general of the Colony of Louisiana (d. 1765) February 7 – Margaret Fownes-Luttrell, British painter (d. 1766) March 8 – Richard Howe, British admiral (d. 1799) April 5 – Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the American Declaration of Independence (d. 1791) April 8 – Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (d. 1798) April 12 – Charles Burney, English music historian (d. 1814) April 20 – Joseph de Ferraris, Austrian cartographer of the Austrian Netherlands (d. 1814) June 3 O.S. – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (d. 1797) June 14 O.S. – Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist (d. 1798) June 20 – Louise Henriette of Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, mother of Philippe Égalité (d. 1759) July 1 – Acharya Bhikshu, Jain saint (d. 1803) July 30 – William Jones (1726–1800), British clergyman, author (d. 1800) August 7 – James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader, politician (d. 1790) August 9 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (d. 1778) September 1 – François-André Danican Philidor, French composer, chess player (d. 1795) September 2 – John Howard (prison reformer), English philanthropist (d. 1790) September 26 – John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist (d. 1796) September 26 – Angelo Maria Bandini, Italian librarian (d. 1803) October 16 – Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801) December 4 – Lord Stirling, American brigadier-general during the American Revolutionary War (d. 1783) date unknown Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist, and government official (d. 1784) Cyprian Howe, American colonel in the American Revolutionary War (d. 1806) Katsukawa Shunshō, Japanese woodblock artist (d. 1792) Jedediah Strutt, English businessman (d. 1797) Lady Anne Monson, English botanist (d. 1776) Deaths January 2 – Domenico Zipoli, Tuscan-born composer and Jesuit missionary (b. 1688) January 12 – Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié (b. 1658) January 19 Franz Beer, Austrian architect (b. 1659) Giovanni Battista Tolomei, Italian Jesuit priest, theologian and cardinal (b. 1653) January 25 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (b. 1675) February 18 – Jacques Carrey, French painter