Chambliss was born in
Sussex County, Virginia to a planter family, James Jared Chambliss (1784-1848) and Lucy Rives Newsom (1782 – 1858). He grew up at his family home of
Glenview, near
Stony Creek, Virginia. It is also known as the Chambliss House. He attended
Winchester Law School in the Shenandoah Valley and passed the bar exam. In 1830 he married Sarah Jane Rives Blow in
Greensville County, Virginia and settled there. He established a profitable law practice near his home in
Emporia. He and his wife had seven children but four did not survive childhood. Chambliss had a moderate-sized plantation and produced profits from commodity crops. He served as a delegate to the
Virginia state constitutional convention in 1850–51. An ardent supporter of
states rights, he was the delegate from
Greensville and Sussex counties to the Virginia
secession convention in 1861. He was subsequently elected to the
First Confederate Congress. Chambliss served in Captain Scott's Company, Greensville Local Defense. After the war, he was arrested and briefly jailed for not having an
Oath of Allegiance pass. This was the loyalty oath required of former Confederates. A copy of his petition to President
Andrew Johnson is filed at the
National Archives; it was granted. Chambliss retired from politics and returned to his home to take up the practice of law. He was interred in the Chambliss family graveyard near
Emporia, Virginia. ==Legacy==