Gatineau’s first black resident immortalized in historical fiction

Tashi Farmilo

A new novel by local author Lawrence P. O’Brien is shining light on a forgotten chapter of Gatineau’s early history. Swallowing the Muskellunge, tells the story of London Oxford, the first known Black settler in the region. He arrived in 1800 with Philemon Wright’s pioneering group that established the first permanent settlement near today’s Lac Leamy.

Though Wright is a familiar name in local history, few know the story of Oxford, a free Black man who helped build the early foundations of what is now the National Capital Region. O’Brien, whose own family has deep roots just north of that original settlement, was determined to find out more. “My great-grandparents married in a church that was erected on what used to be his property,” he explained. That church, St. François-de-Sales, built around 1840, still stands across the Gatineau River.

O’Brien discovered Oxford’s name in archival materials, including the Wright Papers held at the National Archives. “The handwriting of London Oxford is more deliberate and literate than Philemon Wright,” he wrote. “Combined with his willingness to change from a freeman and house servant to one who was willing to take on physical challenges like building cribbing rafts for surviving white water and felling giant white pine timber, suggests to me that this fella was a well rounded character.”

While based on documented history, the novel also introduces spiritual and mythological elements. Oxford and his family must face not just the brutal winter, but something darker that stalks them through the wilderness. O’Brien says the novel explores “themes of freedom and servitude, manifest destiny, and predation” through the eyes of those rarely seen in the pages of Canadian history books.

The story is the first in a planned trilogy called The Mischief Makers, which will span multiple continents and conflicts, from Ireland after the 1798 rebellion to the Anishinabeg experience during the War of 1812. But it all begins in Gatineau, decades before the Rideau Canal was built and long before Ottawa grew to dominate the region.

O’Brien argues that Gatineau’s role as the birthplace of the capital is often overlooked. “Americans are complaining that they have a problem with migrants crossing their borders,” he wrote. “After the war of 1776, the Americans had similar problems migrating north into a country controlled by their enemy.”

The novel can be purchased through Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and Chapters Indigo by special order through the Ingram catalogue.

“This is a story we’ve left in the snow for too long,” O’Brien said. “And maybe one that was never supposed to be buried.”