Sweet William's Ghost (Child 77, Roud 50) is an English ballad and folk song which exists in many lyrical variations and musical arrangements.[1] Early known printings of the song include Allan Ramsay's The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1740 and Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765. Percy believed that the last two stanzas of the version he published were later additions, but that the details of the story they recounted (specifically the death of Margaret upon William's grave) were original.
The song is Aarne-Thompson type 365, "The Specter Bridegroom".[2]