On October 14, 1885, Ripley was married to
Mary Baldwin Hyde (1867–1938). Mary was the daughter of
Henry Baldwin Hyde, the founder of
Equitable Life Assurance, and Annie (née Fitch) Hyde, and the sister of
James Hazen Hyde. Together, they were the parents of: • Annah Dillon Ripley (1886–1963), who married Count Pierre Joseph de Viel Castel (1875–1950), a grandson of Count
Horace de Viel-Castel, in 1910. They lived at 4 Avenue Marceau in Paris. • Henry Baldwin Hyde Ripley (–1959), who married Lesley Frederica Pearson, daughter of Commander
Frederick Pearson and grand-niece of
James Cook Ayer, in 1919. • Sidney Dillon Ripley Jr. (1891–1970), a prominent real‐estate broker who married Betsy Ann Sherry. • James Hazen Ripley (–1977), who married Marguerite Doubleday (1901–1932) in 1925. After his first wife's death, he remarried to Gladys Livermore in 1934. In 1895, Ripley and James Lorillard Kernochan (son of
James Powell Kernochan) were arrested in Hempstead for playing golf, on a Sunday, on the greens opposite the clubhouse at the
Meadow Brook Hunt Club. In 1899, he urged his brother, Harry Dillon Ripley, to take charge of his financial affairs after Hyde had run into debt of $100,000. Just before Ripley died, Harry sued Sidney and the
Knickerbocker Trust Company alleging "misconduct in managing his property." Through brother Lous he is uncle to
Forman School founder Julie Ripley Forman, Through brother Lous, his nephew is
Sidney Dillon Ripley II, an ornithologist who served as Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution for almost 20 years. He married
Mary Livingston of the prominent
Livingston family. Through his daughter, he was the grandfather of Marie Bonne de Viel Castel (1914–1997), who married Eugene Bowie Roberts Jr. in 1965; Pierre Etienne de Viel Castel (1917–2012); and Édouard Louis de Viel Castel (1911–1968). Through his son Henry, he was the grandfather of Henry Baldwin Hyde Ripley Jr. (1924–1998), who married Ethel Lachicotte Boyle, and Malcolm Pennington Ripley (1927–2005).
Death Ripley died of
appendicitis on February 24, 1905. His will was quickly probated and his estate, valued in excess of $5,000,000, was left to his family. His wife received their Long Island home, and all "jewelry, horses, carriages, and harness, and all property of the deceased for life." His wife received $848,505 and each of his children received $74,614 directly. After his death, his widow remarried to Charles R. Scott, a Hong Kong-based British banker who was the son of Col. Robert Scott of the
Irish Fusiliers, in
Bar Harbor, Maine in 1912. ==References==