To the manor not born – the carer who inherited a country estate
Guy Kelly unravels the tale of a DNA test that proved a former council house tenant was the illegitimate son, and rightful heir, of a landed gent
It isn’t often that anything dramatic changes around the Penrose Estate in Cornwall. A vast, 1,536-acre area of woodland, coast and parkland with a Grade Ii-listed mansion at its heart, it has existed on the county’s southern coast for centuries, and even the daily trickle of visitors brought by the National Trust – who took control of the grounds in the Seventies – does little to disturb its tranquillity.
Yesterday was largely the same. Fuelled by cake, intrepid retirees spent the afternoon shuffling around, hunting for bluebells. All day, light aircraft pierced the cornflower sky, bound for Predannack Airfield, a few miles away. And dog walkers, or rather their dogs, revelled in lush undergrowth. By all accounts, it was just another day – except for one major difference. Up at the house, where a standard flickered in the breeze, the new lord of the manor had finally made himself known.
It sounds closer to a plot than local West Country gossip, but eight months after he moved in, this week the answer to the burning question of “Who is the true heir of Penrose?” was finally revealed to be a young, muscled local who previously didn’t have two pennies to rub together. And that Jordan Adlard Rogers, a 31-year-old former care home worker from the nearby village of Helston, has inherited the entire £50million estate after a modern DNA test proved him to be the illegitimate son of the previous aristocratic owner, certainly adds a 21st-century twist.
This corner of Cornwall is a small place, it seems. Jordan – who was raised with his mother’s surname, Adlard, and added “Rogers” in the past year – had suspected his biological father might be Charles Rogers since he was a child. He’d even approached Charles about conducting a paternity test, but was told to contact his solicitors.
“I wrote more letters in my 20s but never got a reply, then three years ago I got in contact with [his lawyers]. They said Charles didn’t want to do the test so I wrote one final letter with a DNA test kit enclosed and that was when they rang and told me Charles was dead,” Jordan told
A post-mortem examination revealed that Charles, who was found dead in his car in August 2018, had died from an overdose of methadone, an opiate prescribed as a substitute for heroin. His GP confirmed he had struggled with drug addiction for a number of years, and it is understood that despite inheriting Penrose Estate in 2012 after the death of his father, Royal Navy veteran Lt Cdr John Peverell Rogers, he chose to live not in the house, but as a recluse in the grounds, latterly confined to his car.
After Charles’s death, it’s believed Jordan had to deal with some relatives contesting the inheritance, but he was proved correct: Charles – who, as a young man at least, was the spit of him – was indeed his father. It meant one of Britain’s most beautiful country estates was his.
There are many elements of the story that remain unanswered, such as when precisely, and how, the DNA test was carried out, including if it was posthumous or not; why Jordan grew up believing this local aristocrat was his father; if they’d spoken in person; whether he had tried contacting his potential grandmother; who exactly these difficult relatives were; and so on.
It is only this week, thanks to a brief interview with a local paper, that the beginning of the tale has come to light, but it appears Jordan has been bedding in at Penrose for several months, first posting pictures of the 18thcentury property on his Facebook page in October.
“Thanks everyone been hard 3 months or so fighting for what is truly mine. And closure on who my father was and family [sic],” he wrote, under a photograph of his new stately pile. The response from his friends and maternal family, including his half-sister, Queenie, was entirely supportive. One friend wished him luck “hoovering that”, another asked for “Christmas dinner at yours please – let your peasant family come over once in a while”.
Yesterday, Jan Rogers, whose late husband, Michael, was an uncle to Charles, said she was “over the moon” and “shocked” that Jordan had been found, not least because the estate was at risk from less closely related relatives.
“I’m so glad it’s gone to Jordan, who is a thoroughly lovely man. He was a carer and it shows because he is so warm and friendly,” she said of her new great-nephew. Now in her late 80s, Jan would not reveal who had made a challenge to the pile, but said “I can only tell you it wasn’t a Rogers. I know it was contested but not on this side of the family. Jordan has been welcomed with open arms. He’s a Rogers through and through.”
Having gone to ground, removed his social media accounts and seemingly asked locals not to spill, much of Jordan’s background remains a mystery. What we do know is that he was raised locally, and attended college in Helston, where the family of his mother, Julie Adlard, lived. He later became a special needs carer and labourer, living in a council house, and his social media feeds showed him filling his spare time with trips to the gym and playing football for local sides, Mousehole AFC and Porthleven.
Derek Richards, 76, a former bar steward, was a neighbour. “They lived next door about 25 years ago, I used to give him Mars bars through the fence,” he said. “He was a really nice boy, a carer for a disabled man in town. I knew Charles too, he had his troubles.”
At the inquest into Charles Rogers’s death last week, Philip Care, a land agent and auctioneer who had managed the Penrose Estate for over 20 years, said the previous owner had always been “wayward” financially, and wouldn’t “pay his bills, and although we were there to help him manage his affairs, he just ignored anything and post was burned”.
“[Charles] was a likeable enough person but he was a bit useless really,” Jan Rogers says. “I think he was a dreadful disappointment to his mother, who worried for him.”
A British Army veteran who served in Northern Ireland, Charles grew up with a brother, Nigel, who died from cancer after a successful career in the RAF. When their father passed away in 2012, Charles could have moved into Penrose House but chose instead to let his mother, Angela, live there, while he lived in a cottage in the grounds.
By last summer, however, Philip Care says Charles was malnourished and sleeping in his car. When he died last August his death received little notice; when his mother followed two weeks later, her death was announced in
Jordan has given up his job and will be sustained by his estate, vowing “not to forget where I’ve come from”, which includes researching his father’s life and ensuring he’s remembered alongside his storied ancestors.
“He’s such a lovely boy, but importantly he is also a village boy, so he knows the area well and I think it is all in safe hands,” said Jan, who has already received an invitation to visit. “What I want to say on behalf of the family is that we are all delighted to call him a Rogers.”
The new lord of the manor will live on his estate with his partner, Katie, who has just given birth to a son, Joshua. That news might come as a relief to locals. All things being well, there shouldn’t be any more dramas at Penrose – for a while, at least.
‘Jordan has been welcomed with open arms. He’s a Rogers through and through’
‘[Charles] was a likeable enough person but he was a bit useless really’