He attended Colonel Council’s School in King and Queen County, Virginia and, after teaching for several years in Louisiana and South Carolina, decided to study law.
Governor John Garland Pollard appointed Judge Chinn to the remainder of the term of Justice Robert R. Prentis, so on December 3, 1931, he joined the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.
Judge Chinn married Sarah Fairfax Douglas at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Warsaw on December 14, 1899.
They had five children, Betty Landon (April 22, 1903), Joseph William (June 4, 1904), Sarah Fairfax (September 30, 1905), Austin Brockenbrough (May 8, 1908) and Mary Douglas (October 1, 1910).
Judge Chinn died in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he had gone for treatment for his emphysema, on August 16, 1936.