He had come to Egypt as a boy after his father's death, and was brought up by his wealthy maternal uncle Mordecai Francis.
Henry, " Richmond on the James " in Historic Towns of the Southern States (New York, 1900), edited by Lyman P. Powell; and Samuel Mordecai, Richmond in By-Gone Days (Richmond, 1856; 2nd ed., 1860).
Owing to the fact that the material collected by Mordecai was left to his pupils to arrange, the work was current in two recensions, an Eastern (in Austria) and a Western (in Germany, France, &c.).
His great legal (Halachic) work is usually cited as "the Mordecai," and its value consists in its thorough use of the medieval authorities.
Mordecai was also the author of Responsa.