The constituency consisted of parts of the St Leonard's and St Michael's parishes of New Malton in the North Riding until the Great Reform Act of 1832; the borough at that point included 791 houses and had a population of 4,173 in the 1831 census. The Reform Act expanded the boundaries to include the whole of those two parishes, as well as that of Old Malton and of the adjoining town of Norton in the East Riding, increasing the population to 7,192 and encompassing 1,401 houses.
The right of election in Malton was vested in the scot and lot householders of the borough, of whom there were about 800 in 1832. In practice the seats were generally in the gift of the landowner, Earl Fitzwilliam (and were frequently held by one of that family, often by the heir to the Earldom who had the courtesy title Viscount Milton); at an earlier period the borough was similarly dominated by the Watson-Wentworth family, and was used as a form of government patronage when the Marquess of Rockingham was Prime Minister.
^The Returning Officer made a double return after a dispute over the franchise: the Committee of Elections and Privileges ruled in favour of Howard and Marwood, and against their opponents Luke Robinson and Robert Lilburne on the grounds that Old Malton as well as New Malton was entitled to vote. (House of Commons Journal, 7 March 1659 [1])
^In 1774 Burke was also elected for Bristol, and did not sit for Malton in this Parliament
^Dundas and Winn-Allanson won in a contested election in which Bryan Cooke came third. On petition, Winn-Allanson's election was declared void and a by-election held at which Cooke was elected.
^Scarlett took the Chiltern Hundreds in April 1831, after switching from the Whigs to the Tories
^Jeffrey was also elected for Perth District of Burghs at the 1831 general election and chose to represent that constituency
Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
Robert Walcott, "English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
