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Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the
:English language who developed the most widely used system of
shorthand
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...
, known now as
Pitman shorthand
Pitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman Sir Isaac Pitman (1813–1897), who first presented it in 1837. Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent lette ...
. He first proposed this in ''Stenographic Soundhand'' in 1837. He was also the vice-president of the
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism.
History
In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...
. Pitman was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
by
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
in 1894.
Background
Pitman was born in
Trowbridge
Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England, on the River Biss in the west of the county. It is near the border with Somerset and lies southeast of Bath, 31 miles (49 km) southwest of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) southe ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
in England. One of his cousins was
Abraham Laverton
Abraham Laverton (3 October 1819 – 31 October 1886), of Westbury, Wiltshire, was an English cloth mill owner, Liberal Member of Parliament for the parliamentary borough of Westbury from 1874 to 1880, and philanthropist.
Early life
Born in ...
. In 1831 he had five months' training at the Training College of the
British and Foreign School Society
The British and Foreign School Society (BFSS) offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies. It was significant in the history of education in England, suppor ...
, which was sufficient to qualify him as a teacher. He started teaching at
Barton-upon-Humber
Barton-upon-Humber () or Barton is a town and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 11,066. It is situated on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at the southern end of the Humber Bridge. It is s ...
, Lincolnshire. In 1835 he married a widow, and moved in 1836 to
Wotton-under-Edge
Wotton-under-Edge is a market town within the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England. Located near the southern fringe of the Cotswolds, the Cotswold Way long-distance footpath passes through the town. Standing on the B4058, Wotton is ab ...
, Gloucestershire, where he started his own school. In 1839 he moved to
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
, where he opened a small school.
In the 1851 census he appears in
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
aged 38, living with his wife, Mary, aged 58, born in
Newark-on-Trent
Newark-on-Trent or Newark () is a market town and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district in Nottinghamshire, England. It is on the River Trent, and was historically a major inland port. The A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road bypasses th ...
, Nottinghamshire. He married Isabella Masters in 1861, and he appears in the 1871 census, aged 58, with his new wife Isabella, aged 46.
Spelling reform and shorthand
Pitman was a lifelong advocate of
spelling reform for the English language, producing many pamphlets during his lifetime on spelling reform. His motto was "time saved is life gained".
One of the outcomes of his interest in spelling reform was the creation of his system of phonetic shorthand which he first published in 1837, in a pamphlet titled ''Sound-Hand''. Among the examples in this pamphlet, were
Psalm 100
Psalm 100 is the 100th psalm in the Book of Psalms in the Hebrew Bible. In English, it is translated as "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands" in the King James Version (KJV), and as "O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands" in the Book ...
, the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
, and
Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had ...
's ''Rules of Life''.
By 1843 his business of preparing and publishing had expanded sufficiently for him to give up teaching and to set up his own printing press, as well as compositing and binding.
[
In 1844 he published ''Phonotypy'', his major work on spelling reform. In 1845 he published the first version of the '']English Phonotypic Alphabet
The English Phonotypic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet developed by Sir Isaac Pitman and Alexander John Ellis originally as an English language spelling reform. Although never gaining wide acceptance, elements of it were incorporated into th ...
''.
In the 1881 census his name was spelled phonetically as Eisak Pitman. In the 1891 census he was again listed as Isaac, but his birthplace was changed to Bath.
Publishing
In 1886 Pitman went into partnership with his sons Alfred and Ernest to form Isaac Pitman and Sons. In the same year the millionth copy of the Phonographic Teacher was sold in Great Britain. Isaac Pitman and Sons was to become one of the world's leading educational publishers and training businesses with offices in London, Bath, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. The publishing division was bought by rival Pearson Plc
Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England.
It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...
in 1985. The training business evolved into two separate businesses: Pitman Training Group
Pitman Training Group Limited is a private limited company based in Wetherby, West Yorkshire. They are an independent Training, training provider, delivering online and paper-based tests for educational organisations. The company has been in oper ...
and JHP Training (now learndirect).
Distance learning
The first distance education course in the modern sense was provided by Sir Isaac Pitman in the 1840s, who taught a system of shorthand by mailing texts transcribed into shorthand on postcards and receiving transcriptions from his students in return for correction. The element of student feedback was a crucial innovation of Pitman's system. This scheme was made possible by the introduction of uniform postage rates across Britain in 1840.
Personal life
Isaac Pitman was fervently Swedenborgian
The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) is any of several historically related Christian denominations that developed as a new religious group, influenced by the writings of scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772).
Swedenborgian or ...
. Not only did he read ''The Writings'' of Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg (, ; born Emanuel Swedberg; 29 March 1772) was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ''Heaven and Hell'' (1758).
Swedenborg had ...
daily, he also devoted much time and energy to educating the world about them. He published and distributed books and tracts by and about Swedenborg. Among the authors he encouraged was Thomas Child.
Pitman was active in the local New Church congregation in Bath while living on Royal Crescent
The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping Crescent (architecture), crescent in the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. Designed by the architect John Wood, the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is a ...
. He was one of the founding members, when this congregation was formed in 1841. He served as president of this society from 1887 to his death in 1897. His contribution to this church was honoured by the congregation with a stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
window depicting the golden cherub
A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...
in the temple of wisdom described in Swedenborg's ''True Christian Religion'' No. 508. The window was dedicated on 5 September 1909.
His memorial plaque on the north wall of Bath Abbey
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, commonly known as Bath Abbey, is a parish church of the Church of England and former Benedictine monastery in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in the 7th century, it was reorganised in the 10th ...
reads, "His aims were steadfast, his mind original, his work prodigious, the achievement world-wide. His life was ordered in service to God and duty to man."
Pitman was the grandfather of James Pitman
Sir Isaac James Pitman (known as James), KBE (14 August 1901 – 1 September 1985) was a distinguished publisher, senior civil servant, prominent educationalist, and leading politician, whose lifetime pursuit was the study of etymology, o ...
, who developed the Initial Teaching Alphabet
The Initial Teaching Alphabet (I.T.A. or i.t.a.) is a variant of the Latin alphabet developed by Sir James Pitman (the grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman, inventor of a system of shorthand) in the early 1960s. It was not intended to be a strictly phonet ...
. His grand-daughter, Honor Isabel Salmon (b.1912, née Pitman) was killed while piloting an Airspeed Oxford
The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery roles throughout the Seco ...
for the Air Transport Auxiliary
The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factori ...
in 1943.
His great-grandson John Hugh Pitman was appointed an OBE in 2010 for services to vocational training.
Vegetarianism
In 1837, Pitman discontinued the use of all alcoholic beverages and became a vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism m ...
, both lifelong practices. He also did not smoke.
Pitman advocated a simple vegetarian diet. He was Vice-President of the Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism.
History
In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...
.[Baker, Alfred Edwin. (1919)]
''The Life of Sir Isaac Pitman (Inventor of Phonography)''
London. pp. 310-312 In an 1879 letter to ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' (London), he attributed his excellent health and his ability to work long hours to his vegetarian diet and abstinence from alcohol. His brother Benjamin
Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...
noted that Pitman "became a vegetarian, not for religious, but humanitarian and physiological reasons".
The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel was named after Pitman.
See also
* Jacob Pitman
Jacob Pitman (28 November 1810 – 12 March 1890) was an architect, builder and educator in the colonies of South Australia and New South Wales. He was a brother of Isaac Pitman and was associated with his development of shorthand transcription.
...
(1810–1890) a settler in South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, founded a Swedenborg Church there, and taught Pitman shorthand in New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. Mentions Uncle William (1801–1859), who also emigrated to South Australia with his large family.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitman, Isaac
1813 births
1897 deaths
Creators of writing systems
19th-century British inventors
British vegetarianism activists
English Swedenborgians
English temperance activists
English-language spelling reform advocates
Knights Bachelor
People associated with the Vegetarian Society
People from Trowbridge
Schoolteachers from Wiltshire