Few things:
(1) There's an actual criteria for a Jeff Cooper-style "Scout Rifle." Basically, its a bolt gun in a caliber that would be acceptable in Africa for taking plains game that loads via detachable mag or stripper clips, uses a Ching Sling, and has a forward-mounted scope. A forward mounted scope and a "scout rifle" are not the same - scout rifles use forward mounted scopes, but forward mounted scopes show up on other guns, like say if someone wanted to scope an old milsurp, like a Garand or a SKS, and didn't want to modify the receiver for a scope.
(2) The .444 Marlin came about because during the mid-1960s, .45-70 wasn't very popular and had largely left the marketplace. I'm sure various gun forums have threads and threads and threads discussing the pros and cons of each. Google's your friend. Neither are particularly suited to hunting in New England, though, they'd certainly work on deer, black bear, and moose. Home or farm defense? Depends on what the buyer likes.
(3) Big bore lever guns are usually known as "guide guns." A guide gun is basically what one would expect a professional guide in Alaska or the Mountain West to have as a stopping rifle to either stop a charging grizzly or to put down wounded game. A guide gun and a scout rifle are very different conceptually.
(4) I owned a M1A SOCOM 16 and I forward-mounted a Leupold fixed 2.5x on. That was the most highly-recommended scope for that rifle. I didn't like the arrangement. Modern optics, like low power variable optics, supersede the need for a low powered scout scope. I highly doubt OP needs to worry about being attacked from dangerous animals at his six, which was an original requirement of Cooper's design; however, modern LPVOs offer perfectly nice fields of view.
I suggest watching this video in its entirety and then going to the gun store to handle some rifles with forward-mounted scopes:
