Gradually, hon-byakusho was branched and subordinate people became "independent," and in the middle of the 17th century and thereafter, villages of the murauke system (village-wide, collective responsibility for tax payment) were established and a farmer called takamochi-byakusho (a person managing a farm by employing farm workers) who possessed (1) a field and (2) a house and land came to be recognized, as hon-byakusho.
次第に本百姓の分家や隷属民の"自立"化が進み、17世紀の半ば以降には、村請制村落が確立していき、(1)田畑や(2)家屋敷地を所持する高持百姓が本百姓であると観念されるようになった。