Jordan Adlard Rogers inherits Penrose Estate after DNA test
- Published
Jordan Adlard Rogers said he would trade anything to go back and know his father while he was alive
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, external.
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.
The striking resemblance between the pair can be seen clearly in a photograph of Charles Rogers when he was younger
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 plans to set up a charity to help people in nearby Porthleven and Helston
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."