OED on the pale

[David Bergdahl]

4. a. A district or territory within determined bounds, or subject to a
particular jurisdiction, e.g. English pale, the confines or dominion of
England, the pale of English law; spec.    b. the English Pale in France,
the territory of Calais (now only Hist.);    c. the English Pale (also
simply the Pale) in Ireland, that part of Ireland (varying in extent at
different times) over which English jurisdiction was established.    d. the
English Pale in Scotland in 1545-9 (obs.).    e. From 1791 to 1917,
specified provinces and districts within which Russian Jews were required
to reside. (The Russ. expression corresponding to ?pale of settlement? is
chertá osédlosti (lit. ?boundary of settlement?).)

  1560 J. DAUS tr. Sleidane's Comm. 396b, The Frenche king went out of his
owne pale. 1600 HOLLAND Livy VII. xii. 257 The Tarquinians overran all the
marches of the Roman pale. 1615 HEYWOOD Foure Prentises Wks. 1874 II. 199
To breake into my Soueraignes royall pale. 1670 BLOUNT Law Dict. s.v.
Palingman, A Merchant Denizen; one born within the English Pale. 1683 Brit.
Spec. 112 The Britains had also (even within the Roman Pale) for a time
kings of their own.

[Therefore, since "the English Pale" occurs as early as 1670, and a
previous use of the English Pale in Scotland in 1545-9, it seems quite
clear that the political use of the term derives from marking the limits of
a physical space with palings.]
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