His father, also Joseph Chinn, had married Elizabeth Griffin, one of Col. Ball's daughters, and represented Lancaster County in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside Henry Towles from 1792 until 1794, when he was elected to the Virginia Senate to represent the Northern Neck counties of Lancaster, Richmond and Northumberland.
He married Mary Ann Smith, daughter of Charles Smith of Morattico Hall, who bore a son, also Joseph William Chinn (1836-1908) who inherited the plantation and fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War, then became a lawyer and fathered Virginia Supreme Court justice Joseph W. Chinn (1866-1936).
[6] A Jacksonian Democrat, Chinn defeated anti-Jacksonian congressman John Taliaferro in 1830 and representing Virginia's 13th congressional district.
His widow and young son Joseph Chinn moved to Tappahannock, Essex County, Virginia, where they lived with the family of merchant Robert Hopkins.
[7] By 1860 the boy had reached legal age, claimed his inheritance and married, living with his wife Gabriella in Richmond County.