VAILL, Joseph, clergyman, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, 3 July, 1750; died in Killingworth, Connecticut, 21 November, 1838. His father, of the same name, removed to Litchfield from Southold, Long Island, about 1730. In 1772 the son went to Hanover, New Hampshire, travelling most of the way on foot, with the intention of preparing for Dartmouth, and defraying his expenses by working in a saw-mill. He was graduated in 1778, studied divinity in Northbury (now Plymouth), Connecticut, and was licensed to preach in May, 1779. From 9 February, 1780, till his death he was pastor of the church at Hadlyme, Connecticut, where he also gave some time to teaching. He made two missionary tours, one in 1792 to Vermont, and another in 1807 to the "Black river country" in New York. After 1832 he was given a colleague. Mr. Vaill contributed to the "Connecticut Evangelical Magazine," under the pen-names of "Senex" and " Jethro," wrote for other periodicals, and, besides sermons, published a narrative poem entitled " Noah's Flood," with some minor poetical pieces (1796). See "Memoir of the Life and Character of the Reverend JosephVaill," by Reverend Isaac Parsons (New York, 1839).--His son, Joseph, clergyman, born in Hadlyme, Connecticut, in 1790; died in Palmer, Massachusetts, 22 February, 1869, was graduated at Yale in 1811, taught in Litchfield and Salisbury, Connecticut, and studied theology with his father. He was pastor of the Congregational church in Brim-field in 1814-'34, and again in 1837-'41, in Portland, Maine, in 1834-'7, and at Palmer, Massachusetts, from 1854 until 1868. In 1841-'5 he was financial agent for Amherst college, and during that period of financial embarrassment he raised for its endowment the sum of $100,000. Amherst gave him the degree of D. D. in 1851. In the autumn before his death he was elected to the legislature of Massachusetts. He published" Sermons" (Springfield, 1861).