The son of Moses and MargaretLane Mordecai, Henry Mordecai grew up on the vast plantationoutside Raleigh, North Carolina that would come to be designated theMordecai House. His mother died when he was only two, just aftergiving birth to her third child, and his father soon remarried—tohis aunt Anne.

In addition to hisfortunes in agriculture and land, Henry became a state legislator. Hemarried his cousin Martha Hinton with whom he had four children.