The son of Moses and Margaret Hinton Lane Mordecai, Henry Mordecai grew up on the vast plantation outside Raleigh, North Carolina that would come to be designated the Mordecai House. His mother died when he was only two, just after giving birth to her third child, and his father soon remarried—to Henry’s aunt Anne.

In addition to his fortunes in agriculture and land, Henry became a state legislator. He married his cousin Martha Hinton with whom he had four children, Margaret, Moses, Mary, and Martha.