Rheumatic born near ?????

[josey]

Yes it is a possibility (but I hope not) that Barnes was born outside the UK.  I have done a world blanket search but have not come up with any other Barnes Boot(e) nor Butt or Boet etc

It does sound as though it could be a Scandinavian or Netherlands/German name.

Maybe his mother's maiden name was Barnes?

[Beans]

Josey,
Looking at the page again I see that there are at least two handsr writing Inverness.
Looking at the one for Finlay McInzie I see that the writer definately starly at the bottom and not at the top as I originally suggested. However although both hands go anticlockwise initially, the "I" starts with a full circle whilst the (possible) "S" definitely starts with a half circle.

Whichever is correct, I still cannot come up with  place name if we discount Inch.
I suppose it might be German seeing as Duke of Cumberland was Commanding Officer and some battalions of the 1st Foot Guards were in Germany at times -
I hadn't thought of that! And there are a lot of Boot(e)s in the Netherlands. But Barnes is not a Christian Name in either of those countries.
Funny, someone else also came up with the Barnes-Mothers surname theory but the only Boot/Barnes marriage I came up with was in 1852.

[Bookbox]

Not a solution, but I wonder if the mark above the middle of the word is an apostrophe, indicating omitted letters? May be worth bearing in mind whilst considering possible places.

[Beans]

Hmm - good suggestion and food for thought.
Do you see the line accross the complete word indication that the second vertical stroke is definitly a letter "t"?

I just changed my searching ways and entered only an initial "B" for Barnes.
Ancestry came up with one possibility, a B. Bout Born 14 December 1724  to Rich Bout in Wakefield, All Saints.
I tried the same in Germany and Netherland any came up with zilch!

[josey]

Do you see the line accross the complete word indication that the second vertical stroke is definitly a letter "t"?

Yes, the horizontal line for the 't' also appears as very long in 'Rheumatizm'.

Interesting find...here is the excerpt, though sadly I have a feeling the initial is 'R' not 'B' - I include a 'B' from same page.

[Beans]

Even more sadly I think you are right. I let myself be led astray by the transcription and hope.
Ah well, back to the drawing board!

If we cannot agree on the first letter, what do you think the second one is?

[josey]

It's actually quite similar to the 'cc' of 'Macclesfield' below, may be a 'u' as in 'Rupture' below

[Rosinish]

Looks like Inches, possibly as mis-spelling of Insch (Aberdeen)?

Annie

Added...Have seen it written as Inches but unsure whether Inches & Insch are the same place....have never had to think about it before 

[Beans]

@ Josey, I agree that it Looks very similar to the CC but that makes no sense at all
Scc... or Icc.. or Lcc. If it were an I then it should be Ick....
I also agree that "u" is the most likely, Su... or Lu... or Iu...

@ Rosinish, although Insch has been suggested by a number of helpers, I would have thought that if he said he was Born near somewhere, he would have taken the next largest town - Aberdeen - and not a villiage that I imagine most People of 1769 would not have heard of. Even now it only has a Population of 2.282 (Appologies if anyone from Insch is reading this)
Having said that, it does look like Insch in the document