Grampound was created a Borough by a charter of King Edward VI with a Mayor, eight Aldermen, a Recorder, and a Town Clerk.
The constituency was a Parliamentary borough in Cornwall, covering Grampound, a market town 8 miles (13 km) from Truro on the River Fal.
While several patrons (including the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Eliot, Sir Christopher Hawkins and Basil Cochrane) attempted to exert their influence over the choice of members to serve Grampound, the electors were more interested in the monetary value of their vote.
Oldfield wrote "The freemen of this borough have been known to boast of receiving three hundred guineas a man for their votes at one election."
The usual treatment for a borough which had perpetual bribery (as practiced in New Shoreham in 1770, Cricklade in 1782, Aylesbury in 1804 and East Retford in 1828) was to expand its boundaries and franchise into an area free of corruption but that was not possible in Grampound where the neighbouring towns were also parliamentary boroughs and increasing the electorate would simply increase the pool of potential bribed voters.