Jordan Adlard Rogers inherits Penrose Estate after DNA test

A former care worker has inherited a manor house after a DNA test proved he was the heir to a country estate.

Jordan Adlard Rogers, 31, only found out his father was Charles Rogers after his death in 2018, Cornwall Live reported.

Mr Rogers’ family had lived in the 1,536-acre Penrose Estate between Helston and Porthleven for generations.

The family gifted the estate to the National Trust in 1974 in exchange for a 1,000-year lease to live there.

Mr Adlard Rogers said he knew from the age of eight that Mr Rogers may be his father and made several unsuccessful attempts to get a DNA test done.

He said after his father died he was finally able to get the test completed.

An inquest last week heard Mr Rogers spent 40 years living as a drug addict and a recluse before dying in his car following an overdose on a heroin substitute.

Charles Rogers’ brother had been a pilot with the RAF and his dad a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, “so he had big shoes to fill”, Mr Adlard Rogers said.

“He was under huge pressure taking it on, but he was different and a free spirit.”

“There was always a pressure of him trying to match expectation,” Mr Adlard Rogers added.

The estate makes money from investments in stocks and shares and renting a number of parcels of land to local farmers.

Mr Adlard Rogers told Cornwall Live he plans to set up a charity to help people in nearby Porthleven and Helston with his new-found wealth.

“People say I’m lucky but I would trade anything to be able to go back and for Charles to know I was his son,” he said.

“Maybe then he might have taken a different path.” BBC News