Knowehead House stood in the townland of Kilcoan More on the Islandmagee peninsula, a mainly Presbyterian, Ulster Scots district on the coast north of Belfast Lough. According to the account preserved by Belfast Entries, the occupant was Ann Haltridge, the widow of a Presbyterian minister. From 1710 she described things being moved about for no reason, bedclothes pulled and scattered, and stones thrown at her by something she could not see.
On 11 December 1710 a boy appeared in the house and claimed he had been sent by Satan. Ann Haltridge complained of stabbing pains and died on 22 February 1711. Within days of her death a young relative, Mary Dunbar, arrived at the house, and the events that followed produced the trial of eight local women.
The poltergeist-style reports are known through the narrative that grew up around the prosecution. Modern historians treat the whole affair with suspicion.
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