The officers were a sovereign, two bailiffs, thirteen burgesses (including the constable of the castle, who in 1837 was Viscount Castlemaine), a recorder, town-clerk, serjeant-at-mace, and billet-master; and there was a select body called the common council.
The common council were unlimited in number, but usually consisted of not more than twenty persons, including the sovereign and vice-sovereign and two bailiffs; they held their office for life, and vacancies were filled up by themselves from among the burgesses and freemen.
By the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act 1832, the non-resident freemen (except those living within seven miles) were disfranchised and the right to vote was extended to the £10 householders.
Athlone was described (by Samuel Lewis in 1837) as "a borough, market and post-town, and an important military station, partly in the barony of Brawney, county of Westmeath, and province of Leinster, and partly in the barony of Athlone, county of Roscommon, and province of Connaught, 12 miles (N. E. by E.) from Ballinasloe, 15¼ (S.E.by S.) from Roscommon, and 59½ (W.) from Dublin ..." Before 1832 the limit of the borough, under its charter, was a circle of a mile and a half radius from the centre of the bridge over the River Shannon, which waterway divided the town in two.
However, for electoral purposes, those boundaries were diminished in 1832 and thereafter included only the town and a very small surrounding district, comprising 485 statute acres.