Ripley is a town on Lake Erie in the westernmost part of Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 2,415 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, a general in the War of 1812. There are no incorporated villages in the town, but there is one census-designated place: the hamlet of Ripley. The town is perhaps best known as being the western end of the New York State Thruway.