During the Commonwealth the Segraves' house at Little Cabragh became the residence of a typical public man of that time, Colonel Sir Hierome Sankey, D.C.L.

All things by turn, and nothing long, Sir Hierome was constant to no form of faith, of occupation, or of government; and although his memory survives through a conflict of words, he gained in his own day the reputation of one who "would fain live easy with all men." In religion he is said to have been successively an Anglican, a Presbyterian, an Independent, and an Anabaptist, with a belief in the opinions professed by the present Christian Scientists; in occupation he filled at one time or another the role of a divinity student, of a soldier, of a college don, of an officer, of a legislator, and of a landowner; and as a subject he submitted successively to the rule of the parliament, of the protector, of the army, and of the king.

He is seen first at Cambridge, where he was reputed "a boisterous fellow at cudgelling and football-playing"; then he appears in Cheshire and the east of England as a captain in the parliament's army; next he is found at Oxford acting as sub-warden of All Souls' College, and introducing, with "apposite speeches and genuflexions," Fairfax and Cromwell for honorary degrees; and within a few months he appears in Ireland serving in the army again with the title of colonel. In Ireland he became, subsequently, governor of Tipperary and a commissioner for the Connaught transplantations; and, although professing then to he an Anabaptist, he hailed Cromwell on assuming the protectorate as "the chariot and horseman of Israel," and returned himself to Cromwell's first parliament as representative of Waterford and Tipperary. Soon after he came back from attending it he was taken, as the person best versed in Irish affairs, again to London by the Lord Deputy, Charles Fleetwood; and although it did not exceed four months, his absence was a subject of frequent complaint on the part of Fleetwood's successor, Henry Cromwell.

But he failed to retain Henry Cromwell's confidence, and when six months later Cromwell's second parliament was elected he had to seek a seat in England, where he found one at Marlborough. From that time he was more feared than trusted by Henry Cromwell, and in the attacks which he began to make then on Sir William Petty, and which have made him famous, he was believed by Henry Cromwell to aim at him. During his conflict with Petty, who tried to smother him with ridicule on account of his belief in faith-healing, he was knighted by Henry Cromwell, presumably in the hope of conciliating him, but afterwards in Richard Cromwell's parliament, in which he represented Woodstock, he delivered a diatribe against Petty that exceeded all his previous efforts. At that time he was one of Richard Cromwell's most trusted advisers, and prophesied that he would be found to possess a double portion of his father's spirit, but a month later he was foremost in demanding the recall of the long parliament, and by his affection and seasonable services in bringing to the army reinforcements from Ireland he received a seat on the committee of safety.

While in the north of England with the troops which he had brought from Ireland he was reported to have joined Monck, but after the Restoration he is said to have been arrested, and to have been a centre of disaffection in Ireland, where he was rumoured to have been killed. Subsequently, having become reconciled to royal rule, he was appointed by Ormonde to investigate alleged frauds in the Connaught transplantations, and appears to have passed afterwards an uneventful life in Ireland until his death, which occurred in the reign of James the Second.

from 'A history of the county of Dublin', Francis Elrington Ball, 1902.