The explorer and writer H. M. Stanley was born in Denbigh in 1841, when he was known as John Henry Rowlands. Stanley was an illegitimate child who was raised in considerable poverty, and he spent nine years in St. Asaph Workhouse from 1847 to 1856. The following page is taken from the St. Asaph Workhouse Admission and Discharge Book for 1856 and shows the entry for John Rowlands, aka H. M. Stanley.