Gazette reported:Windsor Castle, Sept. 30. The King was this day pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on John Thomas Claridge, Esq. of the Middle Temple, Recorder of Prince of Wales' Island.Claridge was then appointed to the position of recorder, a senior judgeship in the Straits Settlement . He may have obtained this post due to his friendship with the Duchess of Dorset, Prime Minister Lord Liverpool’s stepsister. The post provided a salary of £4,000 per year with a pension of £500 a year after five years. Further promotion seemed a certainty, as three out of four previous Recorders in the region had gained well-paid judgeships in India. Soon after his appointment as recorder, Claridge married 25-year-old Mary Pinnock Scott, the eldest daughter of Vice-Admiral Scott. In spring 1827, Claridge, presumably with Lady Claridge, sailed for Prince of Wales’ Island, arriving in Penang in early August Recordership in Penang The Straits Governor was Robert Fullerton, a Scotsman in his mid fifties who was long-standing employee of the East India Company. An 1826 Charter gave the Governor and the Residents equal roles with ‘a Recorder appointed in England, who was to be a Barrister of not less than Five Years Standing’. Claridge felt that he ranked over the governor and residents because he was a representative of the British Governor. In addition, Claridge wanted to set up a fully separate and funded legal arm of government in Penang that was separate from the East India Company. However, neither the East India Company or the British Government supported his initiative due to its high cost. Claridge's relationship with Fullerton broke down almost immediately. A 1921 history of the settlement describes the accepted view of the confrontation:…almost immediately there began between him and the Government ‘those mischievous discussions,’ as the Indian Law Commissioners later termed them, which eventually led to his recall and removal from office.Expected to travel from Penang to Singapore and Malacca to administer justice, Claridge refused to go. He blamed Fullerton and the residents for failing to assume their share of judicial work. Claridge also complained about the lack of a ‘full, efficient and respectable court establishment of clerks, interpreters, etc.’. In addition, he asked for his staff’s salaries to be raised. Another Claridge demand was steam ship transportation to Singapore and Malacca. He regarded it as a ‘direct insult’ when Fullterton refused this request, and ‘Great irascibility of temper