Ichabod Crane as played by Tom Mison, used to be a Oxford history professor who becomes a captain in the Revolutionary War and somehow stumbles in present-day Sleepy Hollow. He is one of the two lead characters of the series and is the First Witness of the two told of in the biblical Book of Revelation.
Ichabod Crane used to be a professor who was recruited to battle in the British army. He grew tired of the oppression in America through British ruling and defected to the Continental Army, serving under General George Washington. He had also spoken of eliminating slavery as he asserted he was part of the New York Abolitionist association. He rose through the ranks and through a conversation with Washington it was divulged that the Revolution was being done not just for the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, but also for the sake of all humankind. Crane was also tasked with a special mission from Washington that is to beat an eccentric Hessian soldier in a fight, one who would be recognized with the mark of a bow on the back of his hand. When he battled the towering Redcoat in the field, Crane shot him, though his adversary arose nearly immediately. After being cut in the chest by the adversary’s axe, Crane utilized his sword to behead the Redcoat and apparently died subsequently in triage, with his wife Katrina by his side, telling of a secret that he must know.
Crane wakes up in a cave in what he comes to find to be 21st Century Sleepy Hollow. Blown away and in shock by the peculiarity of the time, Crane is arrested and charged for the bereavement of Police Sheriff August Corbin, which was in point of fact caused by the Headless Horseman, who has also come back in time and is killing people all through modern day Sleepy Hollow. Crane attempts to plead his case to the disinclined sheriff’s deputy, Abbie Mills, who seen the Headless Horseman assassinate her partner and had a precedent encounter with the paranormal which has influenced her since.
Crane is deemed out of his mind by the law enforcement force and for the majority of the part, Abbie, but she considers that Crane’s knowledge could hold the answer to getting to the bottom of the assassination and finding the whereabouts of the true killer. Abbie brings Crane to a psychiatric ward where he is visited by a bird that unlocks a window to a different realm. There, Crane meets his wife, Katrina, who divulges that she is in point of fact a witch, born into a coven given the task of thwarting the apocalypse. Earlier in Sleepy Hollow, Crane mourned over her when he found his wife’s gravestone which made known to him that she had been burnt for witchcraft, but Katrina informs her husband that she is not in fact buried there and is fenced in this separate dimension.
Katrina tells Ichabod that he is “the First Witness,” and he hasto prevent the Headless Horseman, who is actually Death, of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from getting back his head which would refurbish him to full capacity and pave the way for the ending of the world. Afterwards, Crane and Abbie, who is “the Second Witness,” effectively stop the Horseman from retrieving his head which was buried under Katrina’s counterfeit gravestone and make plans to stop the forces of darkness who plan to bring about the apocalypse.