Under the Act of Settlement of 1704, the land question was finally resolved. What followed was the most prosperous period in the island’s history. The running trade — legal under Manx law, devastating to British revenue — turned the harbours of Douglas, Castletown, Ramsey, and Peel into commercial hubs connecting Bordeaux, Rotterdam, the Channel Islands, and the American colonies.

The merchant families — the George Moores, the Taubmans, the Quayles — ran sophisticated operations. The East India Company complained bitterly that Manx tea undercut their monopoly prices.

Meanwhile, Bishop Wilson arrived in 1698 to find the churches falling and the clergy sunk. Over fifty-seven years, he rebuilt everything. His translation of the Gospel of St Matthew in 1748 was the first scripture the Manx people could read in their own language. Nearly the whole population attended his funeral.

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