Now that’s rags to riches!
Care worker inherits estate after DNA test proves he’s son of an aristocrat
HE SPENT years struggling to make ends meet while working as a care worker.
But Jordan Adlard Rogers’ fortunes have changed dramatically after a DNA test proved he was the illegitimate son of an aristocrat.
The 31-year-old has now moved into a lavish 1,536-acre country estate between Helston and Porthleven in Cornwall.
Jordan said he had spent several years trying to prove its owner, Charles Rogers, was his real father, but Mr Rogers refused to give a DNA sample.
But after he was found dead in his car on the estate last August at the age of 62, a test confirmed they are related.
With Charles’s mother and brother also having passed away, Jordan was left as heir to the grand estate. He has moved
‘I’m starting to get my feet under the table’
into the lavish Penrose Estate and said he was immersing himself in his new way of life and his newfound family’s history.
The Rogers family has lived on the site between Helston and Porthleven in Cornwall for generations, gifting it to the National Trust in 1974 in exchange for a 1,000-year lease to continue living there.
Jordan, who has left his job as a community support Charles to know I was his son. worker to live off the proceeds Maybe then he might have of the estate – which come taken a different path. I don’t from rent and investments in need to work any more so
want to set up a charity and stocks and shares – said he
help the Porthleven and Helston could not believe how much communities. his life has changed. ‘I’ve been at the point of worrying
He added: ‘He offered to do a about the next bill and DNA test when I was younger have had a tough start in life but it didn’t happen. Then but now I’m here, I want to when I was 18, I knocked on his help people. door and asked if I could have ‘ I’m not going to forget the test and he told me to do it where I’ve come from.’ through the solicitors. I was 18, In images posted on Instagram, so had other priorities.’ Jordan – who has
Jordan, who had suspicions recently had a son with his since the age of eight that partner Katie – shows off the Charles was his father, added: outdoor gym he has built in ‘I’m now starting to get my the grounds of his estate. feet under the table here. Images also show him ‘patrolling
‘People say I’m lucky but I the lake’ in a kayak and in would trade anything to be another post, he says he able to go back and for wants to ‘fish my lake’. He described 2019 as the start of ‘massive new beginnings’ and shared images of a new Mercedes C63 outside the property, adding: ‘Seeing if the merc suits the house.’
An inquest last week heard how Charles Rogers – who was made bankrupt six years ago after not paying his taxes – had struggled with drug abuse for many years and died of an overdose in his car outside the Grade II-listed farmhouse on the historic estate.
The inquest, held in Truro, heard that he was malnourished, neglected personal hygiene and rarely changed his clothes in the months leading up to his death.
Instead of living in his lavish home, he was sleeping in his car. The first known owner of the estate was John de Penrose, in 1281. It remained in the Penrose family until it was bought in the 1770s by Hugh Rogers for £11,000.
Lieutenant Commander John Peverell Rogers, of the Royal Navy, decided to donate the estate to the National Trust in 1974 – but left certain conditions about how it should be treated.
Within the estate lies the Loe Pool, the largest natural freshwater lake in Cornwall. But Lt Cdr Rogers insisted that there should be no activities on the water so its beauty could be preserved, meaning fishing, swimming and boating are banned.
He died seven years ago, leaving the estate to his son Charles.