Movements from Devon to Ireland

[Jojosam]

I have a possible ancestor who was a 'native of Devon' and was a ploughman in Antrim when he was arrested and tried in Carrickfergus in 1825, at age 50-odd. The person we assume was his daughter was tried on the same day and, as the convict indent says she was a native of Antrim, we're assuming her father was in Ireland at least from about 1798 which is when she was born. She was a butter maker.

Does anyone know if there was a strong movement of agricultural workers from Devon to Ireland around that time? Or was this case not very common? Or were there other reasons for a lot of contact between these two areas? These two people are brick walls and I'm hoping that information about the circumstances of the movements might throw up some leads for new places to search.

Or is there a good history book or two (preferably available online, although interlibrary loan might be possible) which would help?

Or should this message be on an Ireland board?

Thanks.

Jojosam

[slightlyfoxed]

I would be very interested to see what you turn up. I have a DNA cousin in Virginia USA whose ancestors came from Cork and my ancestors came from Devon, which is where I am. We have been unable to discover how the two connect but we presume through Ireland in some way.

 The late 1700's was a time of considerable hardship in England. It was also a time of disillusionment and discontent for the people in the countryside as they were left without their traditional means of making a living, because land owners enclosed the common land.
Thousands moved to the ever-expanding cities and in doing so they made the  poor substitute , exchanging rustic clean air with fresh homegrown food and destitution, for city filth and poverty as they took up work in the mills and factories.
Others continued to scratch a subsistence living on the land that was left after enclosure.  At the same time there was also a flood of young men returning to Britain from wars in Europe, all needing to find work with their days of soldiering over. 
 Prices were high, wages in the countryside were low and great changes were being made. Unrest was rife, Luddites broke machines in the Midlands as they resisted the trend toward mechanisation and  the whole countryside was filled with unease.
To those who hoped to escape the misery of poverty emigration to overseas colonies became an attractive proposition.

foxy