At the first sub-division of the newly acquired province, British rule, the whole of the upper portion of the Rechna Doab from Jammu to the Jhang boundary and from the Chenab to the Ravi, including Gujranwala district and that of Sialkot, was formed into one district. The temporary head-quarters was at first Sheikhupura and for a short time Wazirabad.
In 1851-52 this wide jurisdiction was broken-up and two districts were formed having their head-quarters at Sialkot and Gujranwala; the Gujranwala district as then arranged extending from the Chenab to the Ravi, and comprising the four tehsils of Gujranwala, Ramnagar, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura.
At the close of the regular settlement in 1856, several villages of the Sheikhupura tehsil were transferred to the Lahore district, and after some trifling changes of estates with Sialkot, the district was reconstituted into the three tehsils of Gujranwala, Wazirabad and Ramnagar. Excluding the transfer of a large area, 13 Rakhs with 87,480 acres from Jhang in 1884, the only changes which took place up to the revision of settlement were transfers of villages to and from Gujrat and Shahpur owing to changes in the course of the Chenab, the deep-stream of which has hitherto formed the boundary for purposes of jurisdiction as well as proprietary right.