The Reform Act 1832 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.
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.
Pepys was appointed as First Lord Commissioner for the Custody of the Great Seal, requiring a by-election.
Pepys resigned after being appointed as Lord Chancellor and being elevated to the peerage, becoming 1st Earl of Cottenham, requiring a by-election.
Childers resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, causing a by-election.