Willey was born in 1811, in a log cabin near Buffalo Creek and the present day Farmington, West Virginia, in Marion County.

He moved to Wellsburg to read law under the guidance of western Virginia sectional leader Philip Doddridge.

[6] Admitted to the Virginia bar in September 1832, Willey moved to Morgantown to establish a private legal practice.

He became active in politics, especially in the Whig Party, and in 1840 was an elector for the William Henry Harrison/John Tyler ticket, although he also lost election to become a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly.

He was active in local politics, served in a variety of positions, and was a popular speaker for the literacy society and temperance campaigns.

[7] As one of four delegates representing Marion, Preston, Monongalia and Taylor Counties at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, Willey argued in favor of universal suffrage for white men, and also believed that eastern Virginian elites dominated political power in the state.

In April 1863, Willey was one of the targets of the Confederate Jones-Imboden raid to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks and capture the Restored Government of Virginia at Wheeling.

[13] Because of his federal position (although he drew the short term of 2 years), Willey participated only from the sidelines in West Virginia's Constitutional Convention at Wheeling.

After Willey won and served one full term, he retired from Congress in 1871, and became a delegate to the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1872.

Although the Waitman T. Willey House that he built in 1839-1840 had been in a semi-rural setting, 78 lots were divided around it after his death, and the surrounding area became the Chancery Hill Addition within the industrializing city.