[1] The events took place in and around Knowehead House in the townland of Kilcoan More in Islandmagee, a peninsula and civil parish in southeast County Antrim with a large Presbyterian population of Ulster Scots origin.
The trial was the result of a claim by Mrs. James Haltridge of Knowehead House that 18-year-old Mary Dunbar exhibited signs of demonic possession such as "shouting, swearing, blaspheming, throwing Bibles, going into fits every time a clergyman came near her and vomiting household items such as pins, buttons, nails, glass and wool".
[3] They were tried in March 1711 at the County Antrim spring assizes, presided over by two judges, Anthony Upton of the Common Pleas and James Macartney of the King's Bench.
Upton urged the jury to acquit: he did not take the modern view that there are no witches, but stressed the blameless lives of the accused and their exemplary attendance at Christian worship: was it likely that they also practised witchcraft?
Traditional Unionist Voice councillor Jack McKee objected that the plaque could become a "shrine to paganism"; he stated that he was unconvinced the women were not guilty and believed the proposal to be "anti-god".
[7] The proposed line "Today the community recognises your innocence" was omitted from the inscription after Ulster Unionist Party councillor Keith Turner objected that it was ultra vires for the council to make such a claim and it should "let visitors decide themselves".