The Militia Act of 1757 established militia regiments for each county and required each parish to provide a number of able-bodied men for military training. Miltia regiments served in Britain or Ireland but not overseas.
During the French wars of 1793-1815, further legislation allowed for auxilliary troops (yeomanry, volunteers, fencible infantry and cavalry) to be raised in each county.
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DevonMisc/Milit iaLists/index.html
In 1803 the government limited the number of volunteers to 5,000 for Plymouth plus 12,000 for the rest of Devon. At that time the total number of volunteers was 16,633 of a total county population amounting to 343,000 - 1 in 20. This is on top of the large numbers of men in the Army, Navy and Militia.
Volunteers would receive payment if marched beyond a set distance from their village (possibly 5 miles in the case of Honiton) or if "called out".
http://ia351428.us.archive.org/haytorvolunteers.pdf
In many parts of England, including Devonshire, 1795 and 1800-1801 were years of harvest failure and soaring food prices - and food riots. In 1801 crowds of men went out to the farmers in the countryside surounding Totnes and demanded they sign an agreement to market their foodstuffs at specified prices.
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Exeter/ExeterHi st1850/History.html
http://www.worc.ac.uk/CHIC/suffrage/document/f oodrioa.htm