Isaac Pitman, the brother of Benjamin Pitman, was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, on 4th January, 1813. He worked as a clerk in a textile mill before before training to become a teacher. Pitman taught at Wotton-under-Edge (1832-36).

Pitman developed his own shorthand system and published details in his book Stenographic Sound Hand (1837). He established his own school in Bath where he taught shorthand. In 1842 he began publishing the Phonetic Journal and three years later opened another school in London.

Pitman, who was knighted in 1894, died in Somerset on 12th January, 1897.