Henry was known as a polemical Quaker, given to argument and controversy. In that year of 1721 he bought 1,992 acres of property in Carteret County near Bogue Inlet. He returned to Newport, and in 1724 he moved his wife, Mary Hull Stanton, and their six children to Cartaret County . Their youngest child, Joseph, was an infant not yet one year old. Other Quaker families, among them the Bordens, migrated to Carteret County at the same time. Most of them settled along Newport River.

Henry Stanton settled at Core Creek along Newport River. He was a shipwright, and he had the first shipyard in the new Quaker colony. Between 1724 and 1741 Henry bought 2,527 acres of property, 1500 acres of it from George, 2nd. Some of the land was planted in orchards and vineyards, some of it was farmed. Henry also had turpentine stills and a brickyard. According to one source, he was one of the most active and progressive men of his day.

He helped organize the Core Sound Meeting. From the original minute book, an entry dated 8-1-1733 states that "the first day before the monthly meeting shall be a representative meeting and to be kept at the house of Henry Stanton till the meeting orders it other ways." He deeded to Quakers three acres of land where Core Sound Meeting House (now Tuttle's Grove Church ) was built.
In North Carolina these Quakers found virgin forests yielding the finest quality of timber of oak, cedar and pine. They settled on Core Sound on a stream which they named Newport in memory of Newport, Rhode Island, the town they left behind. There on the Newport River, at a point near Beaufort in Carteret County, they formed a settlement. Soon William Borden and Henry Stanton were building vessels for their friends and customers in the North.

Henry Stanton, sometimes called a sea captain as well as a shipbuilder, has been described as arriving in Carteret County in 1721. Although he purchased property (1,992 acres) there as early as 1721, and may have obtained headrights for transportation of others, he may not have removed until about 1733, as that is when the records begin to show him in that area.

It is possible that during the years between 1721 and 1733 the families had moved back and forth between NC and RI. It is known that they did employ a large number of men from Rhode Island, expert craftsmen, who traveled south in the winter season to work as lumbermen and shipbuilders, returning north when the heat became oppressive.