The Inhabitants of the City of York and its Vicinity

York is the traditional county town of Yorkshire and was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 to form a municipal borough 1835-1889. The municipal borough comprised of the ‘ancient liberty’ made up of the walled city, some of the city parishes extending north and east, and the open tracts of land comprising Knavesmire and Bishop's Fields on the south and west. During this period York was also a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Census returns show that the municipal borough was populated by 28,842 people in 1841 and 36,303 in 1851.