Finding it necessary to live abroad to protect their property, Ridgway moved to London where he ran the business before settling in Antwerp where he succeeded Isaac Coxe Barnet,[2] to serve as Consul for the United States appointed by President Thomas Jefferson.

The area, which was named Ridgway, Pennsylvania, in his honor, became an industrial center where they manufactured leather, iron, clay, and lumber products, silk goods, railroad snow plows, dynamos, and machine tools.

Together, they were the parents of:[8] After a three-week illness, Ridgway died on April 30, 1843, on Chesnut Street, opposite Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.

[14] Through his eldest daughter Susan,[15] he was a grandfather of Alice Caroline Barton (1833–1903), who married Edward Shippen Willing.

[20][21] Through his only son John Jacob, he was a grandfather of Charles Henry Ridgway (1852–1913), a member of the English Club of Pau, France (and husband of Ellen Richards Munroe), and Emily Ridgway (1838–1921),[22] who married Etienne, Marquis de Ganay, a French aristocrat and art collector.