[1] It was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 based on the Marshland rural sanitary district, and was named after the Freebridge Marshland hundred.

It covered an area to the west of King's Lynn on the borders of Lincolnshire and the Isle of Ely.

In 1930 a new parish of Nordelph was created in Downham RD, taking land mostly out of the Marshland RD parishes of Upwell and Outwell.

[2] During the period 1933-1935 it absorbed most of the area of the disbanded Walsoken Urban District,[3] with other minor boundary changes.

[1] In 1974, the district was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, and became part of the West Norfolk district.