A care worker has discovered he is the sole benefactor of a country manor house following a DNA test.
Many of us fantasise about winning the lottery or inheriting a fortune from an unknown relative that would allow us to live a life of luxury but is very rarely materialises.
Jordan Adlard Rodgers spent his childhood certain that his father was a wealthy, yet troubled, landowner.
From the age of eight, Mr Aldard Rodgers, 31, made a number of attempts to connect with his father and verify his parentage by completing a DNA test.
Unfortunately, all attempts were thwarted during Mr Rodgers’ lifetime meaning that any chance of developing a father and son bond was lost.
However, following Mr Rodgers’ accidental overdose in 2018, Aldard Rodgers was permitted to take the DNA test which confirmed that he is the next in line to inherit a grand manor house.
The Rodgers family had owned the Penrose Estate, in Cornwall, which stretches for more than 1,536-acres, for many generations.
Due to the size of the estate and cost of upkeep, the grounds and house were gifted to the National Trust in 1974.
The family were offered a 1,000-year lease to live there, offering future generations the protection of guaranteed accommodation without the excessive burden of maintaining such a mammoth estate.
Living in the shadows of a talented military family, Mr Rodgers struggled to cope and failing to conform with tradition, eventually spiralled into a life of habitual drug taking. A habit an inquest suggested lasted more than 40 years.
Having died intestate and with no immediate family, the windfall was bestowed upon Mr Rodgers’ previously unknown son.
Having worked in the care industry, Jordan Aldard Rodgers will now live the life of the country gent, making money from stocks and shares in the estate and the rent received from parcels of land used for farming. Having previously worked a difficult job, he will now share his wealth by setting up a charity to help the local community.
Mr Adlard Rogers, care worker who inherited the estate, claimed his father:
“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.
“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.”
How common are cases like this when dealing with intestate estates? Is it common for genealogists and probate researchers to be beaten by the prospective relative?
