Which family had legal issues with Sarah Osborne before she was accused?

The Putnam family had legal issues with Sarah Osborne before she was accused.

The dispute grew from the estate of Osborne’s first husband, Robert Prince, who died in 1674. Prince’s will directed that his 150-acre farm eventually pass to his sons. After Osborne remarried Alexander Osborne, she took control of the property for herself and her new husband rather than waiting for the sons to inherit it.

John Putnam, a prominent Salem-area figure and Prince’s brother-in-law and neighbor, served as executor of the will. That role placed the Putnam family directly in the legal proceedings surrounding the land and inheritance. The conflict gave local enemies a personal and economic reason to resent Osborne.

The Putnam connection matters because some historians believe family tensions helped fuel the accusations. It does not mean the legal dispute itself proved anything supernatural; it shows how property, inheritance, status, and neighborhood rivalries overlapped with the Salem witchcraft crisis.