* 1721 – Grinling Gibbons, English sculptor and woodcarver ( b. 1648 )

* 1667 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow ( d. 1721 )

Alexander Selkirk ( 1676 – 13 December 1721 ) was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway after being marooned on an uninhabited island.

* 1721 – Michel Chamillart, French statesman ( b. 1652 )

* 1665 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer ( d. 1721 )

* 1721 – Roger Sherman, American statesman and signer of the U. S. Declaration of Independence ( d. 1793 )

* 1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician ( d. 1803 )

* 1648 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English statesman and poet ( d. 1721 )

* Pierre Coustant ( 1654 – 1721 )

* Catherine of Siena ( 1707 – 1721 ) Opere, ed.

* 1721 – Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman ( b. 1640 )

* 1721 – James Elphinston, British philologist ( d. 1809 )

* 1721 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman ( d. 1794 )

* 1721 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher ( d. 1790 )

* 1721 – Peter Pelham, English-born American musician and composer ( d. 1805 )

Elihu Yale ( April 5, 1649 – July 8, 1721 ) was an American merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company settlement at Madras and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which in 1718 was named Yale College in his honor.

* 1721 – John McKinly, American physician ( d. 1796 )

* 1721 – Christian Friedrich Heinecken, German child prodigy ( d. 1725 )

* 1721 – John Reid, British army general and composer ( d. 1807 )

Rabbi Yedidiah Tiah Weil ( 1721 – 1805 ), a Prague resident, who described the creation of golems, including those created by Rabbi Avigdor Kara of Prague, did not mention the Maharal, and Rabbi Meir Perels ' biography of the Maharal published in 1718 does not mention a golem.

* 1721 March – Philip V of Spain requested the restitution of Gibraltar to proceed to the renewal of the trade licences of Great Britain with the Spanish possessions in America.

* 1721 1 June – George I sent a letter to Philip V promising " to make use of the first favourable Opportunity to regulate this Article ( the Demand touching the Restitution of Gibraltar ), with the Consent of my Parliament ".

Their purpose was defense from attacks from water and their construction was urged by the Great Northern War of 1700 – 1721.

* 1790 – François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher ( b. 1721 )

Brockes ' poetic works were published in a series of nine volumes under the fantastic title Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott ( 1721 – 1748 ); he also translated Giambattista Marini's La Strage degli innocenti ( 1715 ), Alexander Pope's Essay on Man ( 1740 ) and James Thomson's Seasons ( 1745 ).

** Alexander Selkirk, the original Robinson Crusoe ( died 1721 )

* Alexander Bruce, 6th Earl of Kincardine ( 1662 – 1721 )

He was one of the so-called " Graveyard poets ": his ' A Night-Piece on Death ,' widely considered the first " Graveyard School " poem, was published posthumously in Poems on Several Occasions, collected and edited by Alexander Pope and is thought by some scholars to have been published in December of 1721 ( although dated in 1722 on its title page, the year accepted by The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature ; see 1721 in poetry, 1722 in poetry ).

During the Great Northern War of 1700 – 1721, the Stroganovs rendered sizable financial support to the government of Peter the Great, for which Alexander Grigoriyevich, Nikolay Grigoriyevich, and Sergei Grigoriyevich would be raised to the rank of baron in 1722 and later to that of count.

According to the ship's log, Selkirk died at 8 p. m. on 13 December 1721 while serving as a lieutenant on board the Royal ship Weymouth.

He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1721 to 1727.

( The plural " friends " still but rarely may be used for " kinsfolk ", as in the Scottish proverb Friends agree best at a distance, quoted in 1721.

* October 8 – James Elphinston, Scottish philologist ( b. 1721 )

* May 18 – John Douglas, Scottish Anglican bishop and man of letters ( b. 1721 )

* April 2 – Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician and judge ( b. 1721 )

* September 17 – Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist ( b. 1721 )

* James Murray ( British Army officer ) ( 1721 / 22 – 1794 ), Scottish military officer and governor of Quebec

* John Anderson ( theologian and controversialist ) ( 1668 ?– 1721 ), Scottish theologian and controversialist

* John Douglas ( bishop of Salisbury ) ( 1721 – 1807 ), Scottish man of letters and Anglican bishop

Other major 18th century English novelists are Samuel Richardson ( 1689-1761 ), author of the epistolary novels Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded ( 1740 ) and Clarissa ( 1747-8 ); Henry Fielding ( 1707 – 54 ), who wrote Joseph Andrews ( 1742 ) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling ( 1749 ); Laurence Sterne ( 1713 – 68 ) who published Tristram Shandy in parts between 1759 and 1767 ; Oliver Goldsmith (? 1730-74 ) author of The Vicar of Wakefield ( 1766 ); Tobias Smollett ( 1721 – 71 ) a Scottish novelist best known for his comic picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle ( 1751 ) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker ( 1771 ), who influenced Charles Dickens ; and Fanny Burney ( 1752-1840 ), whose novels " were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen ," wrote Evelina ( 1778 ), Cecilia ( 1782 ) and Camilla ( 1796 ).

John Douglas ( 14 July 1721 – 18 May 1807 ) was a Scottish scholar and Anglican bishop.

* Oo, a Scottish term for wool that was first noted by Allan Ramsay in the glossary to his poems in 1721

He sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1715 to 1721.

* John Skinner ( poet ) ( 1721 – 1807 ), Scottish historian and song-writer

In 1719, the Scottish monk Sigbert de Gembloux reported seeing the island, as did Don Matea Dacesta, mayor of Valverde, El Hierro in 1721.

Thomas Blacklock ( 10 November, 1721 – 7 July, 1791 ) was a Scottish poet.

* David Hamilton ( diarist ) ( 1663 – 1721 ), Scottish diarist and doctor to Queen Anne

John Skinner ( 31 October 1721 – 16 June 1807 ) was a Scottish historian and song-writer.

* John Adam ( architect ) ( 1721 – 1792 ), one of the Adam Brothers, the well known partnership of Scottish eighteenth century architects

William Wilkie ( 1721 – 1772 ) was a Scottish poet.

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle is a picaresque novel by the Scottish author Tobias Smollett ( 1721 – 1771 ), first published in 1751, and revised and reissued in 1758.

James Elphinston ( December 6, 1721 – October 8, 1809 ) was a well noted 18th century Scottish educator, orthographer, phonologist and linguistics expert.

William Robertson FRSE FSA ( 19 September 1721 – 11 June 1793 ) was a Scottish historian, minister of religion, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh.