Jesse Merwin (April 3, 1783 – November 8, 1852), called the "pattern" or "original" of Ichabod Crane, was a rural schoolmaster in Upstate New York, and a friend of Martin Van Buren and Washington Irving.

Jesse Merwin, a 19th-century schoolmaster in Kinderhook, New York, was described in a well-known longhand script letter by President Martin Van Buren as the "pattern" for author Washington Irving's character of Ichabod Crane in his story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

[3] By 1809, Merwin was teaching at a District School in Kinderhook, where he boarded at the home of Judge William Peter Van Ness.

The Columbia County Historical Society (New York) owns the original Kinderhook Schoolhouse named after the Irving character based on Jesse Merwin, the town's first schoolteacher.

[5] Author Gary Denis asserts that while the character of Ichabod Crane is loosely based on Kinderhook Schoolmaster, Jesse Merwin, it may possibly... include elements from Samuel Youngs' life.