He was the younger son of the royalist Sir Ralph Dutton (1601–46) of Standish, Gloucestershire, a gentleman of the Privy Chamber extraordinary to Charles I, and Mary Duncomb, the co-heiress of a London haberdasher and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Bennett.
[1] He married Grizel, the daughter of Sir Edward Poole of Kemble, Wiltshire, about 1674.
In 1679 he married Mary, heiress of Peter Barwick of London, physician to Charles II.
He was a JP and deputy lieutenant and served as colonel of the Green regiment of Gloucestershire foot militia.
[2] Although he was a wealthy man, Sir Ralph ran up enormous debts, partly through his addiction to greyhound coursing.