Hi, Graham.
Yes, I am the eldest son of Ruth Jackson, who passed away in April. She was the last living grandchild of William, the McAngus who came to Texas.
I wrote a family history several years ago which included some information on Hilton. I will post here the first few paragraphs of one chapter. If you are interested, I will be happy to send you the entire book by email.
--Larry Jackson
Texas
The village of Hilton, on the eastern coast of Scotland, has been home to the MacAngus family for generations. When the national census takers came to Hilton in 1851, they found a 50-year-old fisherman named Donald MacAngus, who is the forebear of the Texas McAngus clan.
Five children were living at home with Donald and his wife Barbara Vass. The oldest son was Andrew, then 20 to 25 years old. He, like his father before him, had been born in Fearn, the parish in which Hilton lies. His mother, however, had been born in the nearby parish of Nigg.
Next in age was David, then 12, followed by Hugh, age 10, William, age 8, and Barbara, age 7. There were at least two older sisters, Nelly and Helen, who were no longer living at home.
For some reason, the family had not been listed in Hilton in the national census conducted 10 years earlier, in 1841. Numerous other MacAnguses were listed, though. And every one of the six male heads of household named MacAngus was a fisherman.
Hilton was, and still is, a small village on the eastern coast of a peninsula extending into the Moray Firth. This is one of the bays that come inland from the North Sea. In the eighth and ninth centuries, Norse raiders plundered this area. Where the bay plunges deepest into Scotland lies the city of Inverness, some 30 miles to the south of Hilton. South of Inverness is Loch Ness, famous for its “monster” and the largest of all the Scottish lochs.
In the 1841 census, the parish of Fearn was part of “Enumeration District No. 5” in the District of Easter Ross. Fearn was described as “The South District, comprehending the fishing villages of Balintore and Hilton.” Hilton, incidentally, was also spelled as “Hilltown,” which gives a clue to its terrain.
...